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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

01  FT   OF 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALS  WORTH. 


Received  October, 
Accessions  No  .  5%  I  S~(e  •      Class  No. 


THOUGHTS  ON  PEEACHING 


CONTKIBUTIONS    TO    HOMILETICS. 

». 


BY 


JAMES  W.  ALEXANDER,  D.D. 


V*. 


NEW    YORK: 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER,   124  GRAND  STREET. 
1861. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1360,  by 

CHARLES  SCRIBXER, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


JOHN  F.  TROW, 
Printer,  Stereotyper,  Mid  Electrotyper, 

50  Greene  Street, 
Between  Grand  4  Broome.New  York. 


PEEFAOE. 


IT  had  long  been  the  cherished  wish  of  Dr.  Alex 
ander  to  prepare  a  volume  on  Homiletics,  for  the  use 
of  young  ministers  and  students  ;  and  with  this  object 
in  view,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  jotting  down  in  his 
private  journals,  in  the  form  of  paragraphs,  such 
thoughts  as  occurred  to  him  on  the  subject.  In  one 
of  his  later  journals  I  find  the  following  entry  :  "If 
the  Lord  should  spare  me  below,  it  will  be  well  for 
me  some  day  to  look  over  all  my  dailies,  and  collect 
what  I  have  written  from  time  to  time  on  Ministerial 
Work.  It  is  already  enough  for  a  volume.  It  might 
do  good  when  I  am  gone."  But  death  defeated  his 
plans. 

To  carry  out  his  purpose  as  far  as  it  is  now  possi 
ble,  I  have  collected  these  paragraphs,  and  print  them 
just  as  they  occur  in  his  journals,  without  any  at 
tempt  to  arrange  them  in  the  order  of  subjects.  I 


v  PREFACE. 

have  also  added  to  them  several  articles  on  the  same 
subject,  contributed  by  him  to  the  Princeton  Review, 
and  a  series  of  letters  to  young  ministers,  published 
in  the  Presbyterian,  thus  giving  to  the  public  in  a 
permanent  form  all  that  he  has  written  upon  these 
important  topics.  In  addition  to  these  I  have  intro 
duced  some  paragraphs  on  miscellaneous  subjects  from 
the  same  journals,  most  of  them  bearing  upon  minis 
terial  life  and  experience.  Although  deeply  sensible 
of  the  inadequacy  of  this  work  to  convey  fully  the  ma 
tured  experience  of  the  author,  I  am  not  prepared  to 
withhold  its  publication ;  believing  that  incomplete 
as  it  is,  it  may  yet  be  of  advantage  to  nil  who  are 
looking  forward  to  the  sacred  office. 

In  such  a  collection  there  must  necessarily  be 
some  repetition  of  thoughts,  and  some  opinions  which 
were  afterwards  modified  by  the  author ;  but  I  have 
concluded  to  give  the  whole  as  it  stands,  rather  than  at 
tempt  an  elimination  which  might  weaken  rather  than 
give  strength  to  the  subject. 

S.  D.  A. 

NEW  YORK,  November,  1860. 


HOMILETIOAL    PARAGRAPHS. 

Formalism  of  Sermons,  1. — Avoid  Abstractions,  2. — Memoriter  Dis 
course,  2. — How  to  write  Sermons,  2. — Diction,  3. — Reading  the 
Scriptures,  3. — On  Composing  Sermons,  3. — Discuss  some  important 
point  in  every  Sermon,  4. — Dwell  on  good  Thoughts,  4. — Concio  ad 
mcipsum,  5. — On  Sermon-writing,  6. — Off-hand  Writing,  7. — Ear 
nest  Preaching,  8. — New  Sermons,  10. — Great  Subjects,  10. — Themes 
for  Preaching,  11.— Two  Methods  of  Sermon-writing,  12. — The 
Power  of  the  Pulpit,  14. — Self-repetition  in  Preaching,  17. — Scrip 
ture  citation  in  Preaching,  20. — Uninvited  Trains  of  Thought,  21. 
— Not  to  be  sought  in  Public,  22. — Where  they  come  to  us,  23. — 
We  must  live  apart  to  gain  these  results,  24. — Thoughts  on  extem 
pore  Preaching,  25. — Overhaul  Sermons,  26. — On  Writing  down 
one's  Thoughts,  26. — Give  Scope  to  Freedom  of  Thought,  27. — Mode 
of  Making  a  Brief,  28.— Trial  of  the  above  Rules,  29.— Hampered 
by  a  Skeleton,  29. — Sermons,  30. — Eloquence,  31. — Dividing  Ser 
mons,  32. — Examples,  34. — Application  of  Sermons,  34. — Fresh  Writ 
ing,  35. — Genesis  of  Thought,  36. — Massillon's  Method  of  Citation,  37. 
— Subjects  for  Sermons,  38. — Choosing  Texts,  39. — Theological 
Preaching,  40. — Dr.  Channing,  41. — Preaching  on  Great  Things,  42. 
—Theological  Sermons,  43.— Be  Yourself,  43.— Collect  Texts,  44.— 
Free  Writing,  44. — Writing  by  a  Plan,  45. — The  Pulpit  Sacred,  47. 
— Study  of  Scripture,  47. — Preaching  on  Politics,  47. — Excess  of  Man 
ner,  47. — Feeling,  Animation,  Mock  Passion,  48. — Reading  Good  Au 
thors  Aloud,  48. — Oratory  does  not  make  the  Preacher,  48. — Elo 
quence  may  be  Overrated,  49. — Individual  Type  of  Thought,  Diction, 
and  Delivery,  49. — The  "  Utterance  "  which  Paul  craved,  49. — Attrac 
tion  of  the  Modern  Pulpit,  49. — Apostolical  Preaching  49. — Doctrine 
rather  than  Speaking,  50. — Warmth  of  Feeling  Necessary,  50. — A 


VI  CONTENTS. 

Thought  for  Expansion,  51. — Mingle  Doctrine  and  Practice  in  due 
proportion,  51. — Method  of  Preparing  Notes,  52. — The  Bible  to  be 
Studied,  52. — We  go  Astray  when  we  go  from  the  Bible,  53. — My 
father,  54. — Familiarity  with  the  Scriptures,  55. — Way  of  Study 
ing  the  Bible,  57. — Textual  Knowledge  the  best  Preparation  for 
extempore  Discourse,  59. — All  the  Powers  to  be  devoted  to  the 
Work,  60. — A  Minister  not  to  be  known  by  Works  outside  of  hia 
Profession,  61.— Great  Topics,  62.— Rules  for  Self,  63. 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS. 

LETTER    I . 

Devotion  to  the  Work  of  the  Ministry,  65. — Lack  of  Devotion  among 
Young  Ministers,  66. — Enthusiasm  necessary,  67. — Study  of  Science 
and  Literature  subordinate,  68.— Their  Dangers  to  the  Young 
Minister,  68. — Who  are  the  most  successful,  69. — Effects  of  such 
Pursuits  upon  the  tone  of  Preaching,  70. — We  are  to  hold  our 
Studies  only  as  Means  to  an  End,  71. — Recognize  the  Sublimity  of 
the  Work,  72. — Opinion  of  John  Brown,  of  Haddington,  72. — Of 
John  Livingston,  73. — The  true  Source  of  Pulpit  Strength,  74. 
— Relaxation,  75. 

LETTER    II, 

The  Cultivation  of  Personal  Piety,  76. — The  best  judges  of  Preach- 
ing,  77. — True  Piety  alone  able  to  sustain  the  Minister,  78. — Tempta 
tions,  79. — Keep  under  the  Body,  79. — Opinion  of  Owen,  80. — How- 
to  prevent  Declension,  81. — Examples  of  Eminent  Preachers,  82. — 
Extract  from  Life  of  Carus,  83. — Extract  from  Life  of  Flavel,  84. — 
Pascal,  87. 

LETTER    ill. 

The  Happiness  of  Christ's  Ministry,  88. — Constituents  of  this  Happi 
ness,  89. — The  private  life  of  a  Christian  Minister  should  be  a  happy 
one,  90. — There  is  Happiness  in  Preaching,  91. — The  Glow  of  Public 
Discourse  as  a  source  of  Happiness,  92. — Love  is  what  moves  the 
Hearer,  93. — This  Happiness  not  dependent  upon  Great  Assemblies 
or  Fine  Churches,  94. — Parochial  Work  and  Social  Communion 
sources  of  Happiness,  95. — The  Joy  of  Harvest,  96. — Happiness  in 
Contemplation  of  the  Reward,  97. 


CONTENTS,  Vli 

LETTER    IV. 

Clerical  Studies,  99. — Ministerial  Learning  recommended,  100. Lu 
ther,  101.— Extract  from  his  Address  at  Coburg,  102.— His  Pane 
gyric  on  Clerical  Learning,  103.— Make  sure  of  the  Solids,  104.— 
Difficulty  of  obtaining  time  for  Private  Study,  105.— Melville,  106. 
—A  Mistake  guarded  against,  107.— Close  Study  essential,  108.— 
Habitual  and  actual  Preparation,  109. — Evil  of  not  Preparing  at 
all,  110.— The  End  of  Preparation  to  be  kept  constantly  in  view 
111. 

LETTER    V. 

How  to  find  time  for  Learning,  112.— Make  the  most  of  your  Time,  113. 

— Contemplate  all  your  studies  as  the  Study  of  God's  Word,  114. 

Lop  off  all  Irrelevant  Studies,  115.— Especially  such  as  require  great 
expense  of  time  in  order  to  proficiency,  116. — Some  degree  of 
Knowledge  of  Collateral  Sciences  necessary,  117.— The  Minister's 
Study,  118. — Punctuality  and  Order,  119. — Economy  of  Time,  120. 
— Habits  of  Living  Ministers  as  to  hours  of  Study,  121. — Studies 
of  Itinerants,  1^2.— Advantages  of  a  Small  Charge,  123.— Much 
Learned  on  this  subject  from  men  of  other  professions,  124. 

LETTER   VI. 

Learned  Pastors,  125. — Robert  Bolton,  126. — Owen,  Baxter,  and 
Howe,  127. — Charnoc,  Calamy,  128. — Pool,  Tuckney,  Flavel,  129. 
— Caryl,  Goodwin,  130. — Peter  Vinke,  John  Quick,  131. — George 
Hughes,  Jcss\-,  132. — John  Rowe,  John  McBirnie,  133. — Melville, 
Bruce,  Bickson,  134. — William  Guthrie,  135. — Rutherford,  136. — 
George  Gillespic,  137. — Halyburton,  Boston,  the  Erskines,  Mac- 
laurin,  Withcrspoon,  138. — Bochart,  139. — American  Divines,  140. 

LETTER    VII. 

Extempore  Preaching,  140. — Begin  at  Once,  141. — Xot  easily  com 
bined  with  Reading,  142. — Premeditation  Essential,  143. — Choose 
your  Topics  wisely,  144. — Revivals  of  Religion  train  Off-hand 
Preachers,  145. — Method  of  gaining  Extempore  Power,  146. — Don't 
Prepare  your  Words,  147. — Things  that  perplex  the  Speaker,  148. 
— The  Wesleyans,  149. 

LETTER    VIII. 

Extempore  Preaching  continued,  150. — Argumentative  Discourse  con 
sistent  with  Extempore  Address,  151. — Instances  cited,  152. — Read- 


vi[\  CONTENTS. 

ing  not  common  among  Continental  Divines,  152.— Ebrard's  Propo 
sitions,  153.— Opinions  of  other  Germans,  154.— Beware  of  Undue 
Length,  155.— Favourable  Schools  of  Practice,  156.— Some  Prac 
tical  Rules,  157.— Ebrard's  Comic  Advice,  158. 

LETTER    IX. 

Extempore  Preaching  continued,  160.— God  accomplishes  his  Ends  in 
various  Ways,  161.— Previous  Discipline  necessary  in  order  to  en 
sure  Order,  Correctness,  and  Elegance,  161.— Opinions  of  Cicero, 
162.— Example  of  Fenelon,  163.— Adolph  Monod,  164.— Extract 
from  his  Lecture  on  "  Self-possession  in  the  Pulpit,"  165.— Some  Im 
portant  Rules,  167. 


LETTER    X. 


Diligence  in  Study,  168.— Superficial  Preachers,  169.— The  Evil  Re 
bounds  upon  Themselves,  170. — Inevitable  Results  of  Superficial 
Preaching,  170. — Ministerial  Study  a  sine  qua  non  of  Success,  171. 
— General  Studies,  172.— These  Sub-divided,  173. — Non-professional 
Studies,  174. — The  Study  of  Law  as  an  Example,  175. 


STUDIES  AND   DISCIPLINE   OF  THE  PPvEACHER. 

Forming  Habits  of  Study,  177. — Errors  in  respect  to  Parochial  Studies 
and  Discipline,  178. — Mistaking  Erudition  for  Culture,  179. — Ex 
amples,  180. — Reading  to  be  Properly  Directed,  181. — The  mind 
must  have  time  for  Reflection,  182. — Dangers  of  coming  in  Contact 
with  Error,  183. — Instance  of  Coleridge,  183. — How  Truth  is  to  be 
Discovered  amidst  conflicting  Error,  184. — The  Truth  of  Scripture 
the  Grand  Topic  of  Life,  185. — Application  of  the  Principle,  186. — 
The  Foundation  of  Valid  Belief  to  be  kept  in  mind,  187. — The  Truths 
of  the  Bible  such,  188. — Value  of  the  statement  of  a  Great  Truth, 
189. — Exegesis  the  Great  Work  of  the  Student,  190. — Danger  of 
Commentaries,  191. — The  Duty  of  Studying  the  Text  for  ourselves, 
192. — Danger  of  our  Explaining,  193. — The  Modern  German  Press, 
194. — Of  Little  Value  to  the  American  Pastor,  195. — Value  of  Orig 
inal  Meditation,  196. — Early  Advance  in  True  Reasoning  adds  Con 
firmation  to  the  General  System,  197. — A  Caveat  against  Reading 


CONTENTS.  IX 

not  intended,  198. — How  to  be  Directed,  199. — Danger  of  much 
Quoting,  200. — Independent  Thinking,  201. — Attention,  202. — How 
to  Think,  203.— Good  Books  Auxiliary,  204.— Lord  Eldon's  Opinion, 
205. — The  Value  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  Process  of  Thought,  206. 
— Manner  of  Inferior  Minds,  207. — True  Discipline,  208. — A  Minis 
ter's  Sermons  show  the  Character  of  his  Thinking,  210. — Advan 
tages  of  the  Country  Pastor,  211. — Cecil's  Opinion  of  the  Minis 
ter's  Studies,  212. — Ministers  as  Authors,  213. — Authorship  among 
Working  Pastors,  214. — Authorship  in  England  and  on  the  Conti 
nent,  215. 


THE    MATTER    OF    PREACHING. 

Discussions  as  to  the  Matter  and  Manner  of  Preaching,  217. — There 
can  be  no  Difference  as  to  the  Matter  among  the  Reformed,  219. — 
What  is  to  be  Preached,  220.— God  the  Great  Object,  221.— Truths 
relating  to  God,  223. — This  may  be  considered  a  Truism,  224. — The 
Attitude  in  which  Man  should  be  put  by  the  Preacher,  226. — The 
Law  to  be  Preached,  227. — For  what  purpose,  228. — Wrong  Way  of 
Preaching  it,  230. — The  Right  Way,  231. — Danger  of  being  more 
Righteous  than  God's  Law,  232. — These  Principles  applied  to  the 
whole  sphere  of  Evangelical  Duty,  233. — Prejudices  against  Didactic 
Preaching,  234.— Anecdote  of  Prof.  Stuart,  235.— Wherein  the  Life 
and  Power  of  Preaching  consists,  237. — God  must  be  set  forth 
pre-eminently  in  Christ,  239. — Little  Danger  of  Excess  in  setting 
Christ  forth  Objectively,  241. — Way  and  Grounds  of  Vital  Union 
especially  to  be  set  forth,  242. — The  Subject  often  Obscured  by 
making  Love  the  Spring  of  Faith,  245. — Tendency  of  this  to 
Generate  Error  as  to  the  Sinner's  Inability,  248. — Views  of  Doc 
trinal  Preaching,  249. — Views  of  Controversial  Preaching,  252. — 
Abstract  and  Metaphysical  Preaching,  253. — True  Method  to  Pro 
ceed  from  the  Known  to  the  Unknown,  255. — How  far  Prudential 
Considerations  and  Expediency  are  to  determine  the  Nature  of 
Preaching,  257. — Application  of  the  Principles,  258. — Much  left  to 
Christian  Prudence,  259. — Moral  and  Worldly  Virtues,  2C1. — Social 
and  Civil  Relations,  264. — Worldly  Interests  not  to  be  made  promi 
nent  in  Preaching,  265. — The  Effect  of  the  Opposite  Course,  266. — 
How  far  they  should  be  Inculcated,  268.— Politics,  269. 


CONTENTS. 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING. 

The  Custom  of  Preaching,  272. — Disuse  of  Expository  Preaching,  273. 
— It  is  the  most  Obvious  or  Natural  Way  of  conveying  Truth,  274. — 
Has  the  Sanction  of  Age,  275. — Deduction  of  Bingham  and  Neander, 
276. — Method  of  Augustine  and  Chrysostom,  278. — Preaching  in 
England  in  the  13th  Century,  279. — Opposition  to  Expository 
Preaching,  280. — Method  of  the  Non-conformists,  281. — Expository 
Method  secures  the  Greatest  Amount  of  Scriptural  Knowledge,  283. — 
Its  Advantages  to  the  Minister,  285. — Its  Advantages  to  the  Hearers, 
286. — Opinion  of  Chrysostom,  287. — Expository  Method  gives  Truth 
in  its  Connections,  289.— Evils  of  the  Textual  Method,  296.— The 
Scotch  Educate  by  Expository  Preaching,  292. — It  Affords  Induce 
ment  and  Occasion  to  Declare  the  whole  Counsel  of  God,  293. — It 
admits  of  being  made  Interesting  to  Christian  Assemblies,  295. — 
The  effect  of  mere  Ethical  Preaching  in  Germany,  297. — Sympathy 
and  Attention  of  the  Hearer  secured  by  Exposition,  298. — Ex 
pository  Preaching  tends  to  Correct  and  Preclude  the  Evils  of  the 
Textual  Method,  299. — Sermons  sometimes  Devoid  of  Scriptural 
Contents,  300.— The  abuse  of  wresting  Texts,  301.— The  Desire  for 
something  New  sometimes  Seduces  the  Preacher,  302. — Examples 
of  this  Abuse,  303. — Emptiness  Incident  to  the  Modern  Method, 
304. — Evils  of  Diffuseness,  306. — Novel  and  striking  Texts,  307. — 
Exposition  demands  Method  and  Assiduity,  308. — Undigested  Dis 
courses,  309. — Leighton,  310. — Summcrfield,  311. — Dr.  Mason,  312. 


THE  PULPIT  IN  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  TIMES. 

Origin  of  Preaching,  314. — Public  Reading  of  the  Scriptures,  315. — 
Manner  of  Reading,  316. — Early  Preaching  without  Manuscripts, 
317. — Preaching  of  Augustine  and  Origen,  318. — Gregory  the  Great, 
319. — Sermons  were  taken  down  by  Reporters,  320. — Examples  of 
the  same  in  Modern  Times,  321. — Simplicity  of  Apostolical  Times 
giving  place  to  Grecian  Rhetoric,  322. — Preaching  not  confined  to 
the  Lord's  Day,  323. — Sermons  of  Early  Fathers,  324. — Example  of 
Augustine's  Preaching,  825. — Great  Decadence  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
326. — Whippers  and  Preaching  Friars  of  the  Fourteenth  Century, 
327.— Modern  Pulpit  dates  from  Reformation,  328.— Characteristics 


CONTENTS.  XI 

of  Scottish  Pulpit,  329. — Sermons  of  the  Scottish  Church,  330. — The 
English  Pulpit,  331. — Examples  of  Preachers,  333. — Barrow,  333. — 
Jeremy  Taylor,  334. — Extract  from  his  Sermon  (Note),  336. — South, 
337.— Quotations  from  him,  339.— Tillotson,  342.— Other  English 
Preachers,  345. — Foster's  Opinion  of  Blair's  Sermons,  346. — Preach 
ing  of  the  Non-Conformists,  348. — Owen,  Bates,  Flavcl,  Charnock, 
Howe,  350.— Watts,  Doddridge,  352.— The  French  Pulpit,  353.— 
Bourdaloue,  354. — Bossuet,  357. — Massillon,  358. — Fenelon,Flechier, 
Bridaine,  360.— French  Protestant  Pulpit,  360.— A  Selection  of  Ser 
mons  recommended  for  Publication,  361. — Pulpit  Larceny,  362. — A 
Snare  of  the  Pulpit,  363. — What  are  the  Best  Sermons,  364. 

ELOQUENCE    OF    THE    FKENCH    PULPIT. 

State  of  France  under  Louis  XIV.,  366. — Bossuet,  368. — Character  of 
his  Eloquence,  369. — Extract  from  his  Sermon  on  "The  Truth  and 
Perfection  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  371.— Extract  from  his  Ser 
mon  on  "The  Crucifixion,"  376. — On  "The  Name  of  Jesus,"  377. — 
His  Contrast  between  Christ  and  Alexander,  381. — Specimen  of  his 
Address  to  the  King,  382. — How  he  applied  Truth  to  the  Conscience, 
384. — Extract  from  his  Sermon  on  "  The  Sufferings  of  the  Soul  of 
Jesus,"  386.— His  Funeral  Orations,  388. — On  Henrietta,  Queen  of 
England,  390. — Henrietta,  Princess  of  England,  391. — Her  deliver 
ance  out  of  the  Hands  of  her  Enemies,  392. — His  Sermon  on  the 
Prince  of  Conde,  395. — Bourdaloue,  398. — Extract  from  his  Ser 
mon  on  the  "Passion  of  Christ,"  401. — A  Circumstance  illustrating 
the  Power  of  his  Preaching,  408. — Massillon,  409. — Character  of  his 
Preaching,  410. — His  Funeral  Orations,  411. — Extracts  from  his  Ser 
mons,  412. — The  Manner  of  Delivery  of  the  French  Preachers,  415. 

MISCELLANEOUS  PAKAGKAPHS. 

Do  Good  to  Men,  419. — Beneficence,  419. — Byron,  420. — God  in  Na 
ture,  421. — See  God  in  Nature,  422. — On  the  late  Cloudy  Weather, 
423. — Converse  with  God,  424.— God  is  the  Portion,  425. — Writing 
Books,  425.— Be  Careful  for  Nothing,  426.— How  shall  Mankind  be 
made  Happy  ?  426. — Against  Solitude,  428. — Dying  Evidences,  430. 
— Pain,  430. — Blessings  of  Trial,  431. — Look  Forward,  431. — Influ- 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

ence  of  our  Actions,  432. — Evils  of  Musing,  433. — True  Poetry,  435. 
The  People,  435. — Religion  as  Excitement,  436. — Books  and  Soli 
tude,  437. — Daily  Conflict,  438. — Microcosm,  439. — Thy  Word  is 
Truth,  440. — Modes  of  Self,  441. — How  to  View  Nature,  442. — Apo 
thegms  for  the  Time,  442. — Thoughts  on  Reading  Kant,  443. — The 
Scriptures,  444. — Maxims,  445. — Goethe,  445. — John  Howe,  447. — 
On  Reading  the  Epistles,  448. — Characteristics  of  the  New  Testa 
ment,  449.— One  Truth,  449.— Central  Truths,  450.— Truth  in  Trains, 
450. — Rules  often  Constrain,  450. — An  Active  Mind  never  Idle,  451. 
— Diversities  of  Religious  Opinion,  452. — Reflection,  454. — Regulate 
the  Heart,  455.— The  Power  of  the  Will,  455.— Aphorisms  on  Self- 
Denial  of  Appetite,  456. — God  Overrules,  457. — More  Maxims,  458. 
— Think  for  Yourself,  459. — Physical  Discipline,  459. — A  Simple 
Rule,  460. — A  Settled  Plan  for  Life  impossible,  461. — Use  of  Knowl 
edge,  461. — What  it  is  to  Abandon  the  World,  462. — Philosophical 
Studies,  462.— Take  no  Thought  for  the  Morrow,  463.— A  Student's 
Sabbath,  464.— Variety  in  the  Bible,  465.— Argument  the  Basis  of 
Devotion,  466. — Thought  of  the  Day,  467. — Influence  of  Christianity, 
468. — Take  Time  to  Decide,  468. — Thoughts  for  the  Time,  469. — 
Wait  for  Uncommon  Grace,  472. —  Great  Christians,  473.  —  Great 
Results  from  Little  Acts,  475. — The  Influence  of  the  Spirit,  476. — 
Song  in  the  Night,  477. — Real  Knowledge  and  Book  Learning,  478. 
— The  Manifestation  of  God,  478. — Death-Bed  Repentance,  481. — 
Operation  of  Christianity  upon  the  Church,  482. — Dr.  Green,  482. — 
Likes  and  Dislikes,  483. — Idle  Days  not  always  Lost,  486. — Conse 
cration  of  Learning,  487. — Evils  of  Unsanctified  Learning,  490. — 
Thoughts  as  we  Grow  Old,  491. — Moral  Education,  492. — Morality 
without  Religion,  493. — Mental  Acts  of  Devotion,  493. — A  Wisdom 
not  in  Books,  494. — Love,  494. — Anxiety  about  the  Morrow,  495. — 
True  Way  of  Living,  496. — Avoid  Harshness,  497. — A  Batch  of 
Maxims,  497. — Christian  Love,  498. — Owen  on  the  Sabbath,  500. — 
Voice  Training,  501. — A  Class  of  Authors  recommended,  502. — 
Value  of  Verbal  Propositions,  503. — Deduction,  504. — Each  Propo 
sition  suggests  the  Next,  505. — Fixing  Attention,  506. — All  Times 
not  equally  good  for  Production,  507. — Thoughts  on  making  Maxims, 
508. — Generalization,  512. — An  Ephemeris  or  Journal  recommend 
ed,  513. — Think  long  and  deeply  oil  a  Subject,  as  if  nobody  had  ever 
investigated  it  before,  514. 


THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 


HOMILETICAL  PAEAGEAPHS. 

FROM      THE     AUTHOR'S      PRIVATE      JOURNALS. 

§  1.  Formalism  of  Sermons. — Without  flattering 
myself  with  the  notion  that  I  was  ever  eloquent,  I 
am  persuaded  that  the  most  effective  discourses  I 
ever  delivered,  were  those  for  which  I  had  made  the 
least  regular  preparation.  I  wish  I  could  make  ser 
mons  as  if  I  had  never  heard  or  read  how  they  are 
made  by  other  people.  The  formalism  of  regular 
divisions  and  applications  is  deadly.  And  as  to 
written  sermons,  what  is  written  with  weariness  is 
heard  with  weariness. 

§  2.  Avoid  Abstractions. — If  you  would  keep  up 
attention,  avoid  abstractions  in  your  sermons,  except 
those  of  mere  argument.  Come  down  from  generals 
to  specifications,  and  especially  to  individual  cases. 
Whenever  possible,  give  name  and  place,  and  inter- 
1 


2  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

sperse  anecdote.  By  this  means  the  Puritans,  even 
when  they  were  prolix,  were  vivacious.  They  subsi 
dized  every  event  of  Old  Testament  history,  and 
talked  of  David  and  of  Judas,  instead  of  royalty  and 
treason. 

§  3.  Memoriter  Discourse. — When  Pompey  the 
Great  was  going  from  the  vessel  to  be  murdered,  he 
spent  his  time  in  the  little  Egyptian  boat,  in  reading 
a  little  book  in  which  he  had  written  a  Greek  ora 
tion,  which  he  intended  to  speak  to  Ptolemy.  Vol. 
13,  p.  257. 

§  4.  Suggested  "by  my  Last  Sermon. — Unless  a 
sermon  is  amazingly  long,  one  must  not  write  an 
analysis,  or  brief,  of  many  members.  You  will  find 
that  on  each  you  have  hardly  more  than  a  couple  of 
pages,  in  which  short  space  you  cannot  get  a-going 
on  any  of  the  topics. 

Again :  There  is  a  greater  force  and  condensation 
in  the  rapid  first  draughts  which  I  write  as  a  basis, 
than  in  the  sermons  which  I  make  on  them :  why  ? 
Because  in  writing  the  second  time  I  try  to  expand 
each  of  the  points.  How  shall  the  weakness  conse 
quent  on  this  be  avoided  ?  By  writing  a  rapid, 
warm,  percussive,  cordial  'baMs^  at  a  glow — and  then 
doing  little  more  than  to  put  this  into  shape  ;  turning 
the  hints  into  propositions. 


IIOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  3 

§  5.  Diction. — The  great  fastidiousness  of  the  House 
of  Commons  is  often  mentioned,  but  it  is  nothing  to 
that  of  the  Greek  Demos.  The  standard  which  Aris 
totle  assumes,  and  which  wras  evidently  that  of  the 
times,  was  so  severe  as  to  exclude  from  oratory  every 
thing  in  the  diction  which  betrayed  the  slightest 
artifice.  Read  particularly  on  this  subject  what  is 
written,  Chap.  2,  Book  iii.  of  the  Rhet.,  especially 
§10. 

The  third  chapter  of  the  third  book,  about  Frigid 
diction,  is  capital.  The  four  sources  of  the  Frigid  are 
flowing  perpetually  among  our  Americans.  He 
speaks  admirably  of  the  tendency  to  make  prose  run 
into  poetry. 

§  6.  Reading  the  Scriptures. — To-day  I  took  up 
my  Greek  Testament,  and,  as  I  walked  about  the 
floor,  read  the  2d  Epistle  to  Timothy,  pausing  in 
thought  on  certain  striking  places.  I  saw  many  new 
excellencies — had  some  new  rays  of  light — and  was 
more  than  ever  convinced  of  the  excellency  of  this 
way  of  Scripture  study.  Especially  when,  after  a 
number  of  rapid  perusals,  one  goes  over  the  ground 
with  more  and  more  ease  every  time. 

§  7.  On  Composing  Sermons. — Notes  on  Con 
versations  with  J.  A.  A. — My  father  says  a  man 
should  not  begin  with  making  a  plan.  Should  not 


4:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

wait  until  lie  is  in  the  vein.  Begin,  however  you  feel ; 
and  write  until  you  get  into  the  vein — however  long 
it  be.  'Tis  thus  men  do  in  mining.  You  may  throw 
away  all  the  beginnings.  Men  who  write  with  ease 
think  best  pen  in  hand.  This  applies  to  sermons,  and 
also  to  books.  It  might  be  well  to  write  a  sermon 
currente  calamo,  and  then  begin  again  and  write 
afresh  (not  copying,  or  even  looking  at  the  other, 
but),  using  all  the  lights  struck  out  in  the  former 
exercise. 

§  8.  Preaching. — The  sermon  I  have  last  writ 
ten,  on  Gen.  49,  4,  is  the  least  evangelical  I  ever 
made  ;  yet  this  did  not  once  enter  into  my  head  until 
I  had  finished.  Let  me  learn  to  be  careful  how  I 
censure  others.  Further,  let  me  learn  the  importance 
of  making  all  my  written  sermons  discussions  of  some 
important  point  of  doctrine.  The  times  need  this, 
and  my  mind  needs  it,  both  in  regard  of  theological 
knowledge  and  ratiocinative  discipline.  Treat  doc 
trines  practically,  and  experience  argumentatively. 
Avoid  technicalities,  avoid  heaping  up  of  texts,  like 
stones  without  mortar. 

§  9.  Dwell  on  Good  Thoughts. — Yery  important. 
This  seems  something  more  than  what  is  hackneyed. 
Think  it  out.  If  it  occur  in  reading,  pause,  raise  your 
eyes  from  the  book,  and  follow  it  out.  Thoughts  which 


1IOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  5 

come  Tip  first  are  naturally  trite.  This  is  especially  so 
of  illustration.  If  one  occurs,  pursue  it,  follow  it  into 
the  particular  parts  of  the  resemblance.  If  a  meta 
phor  or  similitude,  carry  it  forth  in  all  its  lesser  resem 
blances.  If  it  seem  hackneyed,  take  some  analogous 
one — take  several.  All  these  processes  of  thought 
will  be  useful  at  some  other  time,  for  our  good  trains 
of  thought  are  seldom  entirely  lost.  Xo  man  could 
ever  speak  extempore,  if  every  thing  he  said  was  lite 
rally  the  fruit  of  the  moment.  ~No  ;  in  many  instances 
by  some  association,  a  whole  train  of  thoughts  which 
had  been  forgotten  for  years  will  be  brought  up. 

§  10.  On  Sermon-writing.  (Concio  admeipsum.) — 
The  last  Lord's  day  of  the  year  has  arrived,  and,  on 
reviewing  your  labours,  you  must  feel  that  you  have 
not  stirred  up  the  gift  that  is  in  you.  Your  talent, 
gualiscunque  sit,  has  been  too  much  laid  up  in  the 
napkin.  Especially  in  the  matter  of  writing  you 
have  been  delinquent.  Many  things  you  have  written, 
and  even  printed  ;  but  few  sermons.  You  have  be 
stowed  your  time  and  labour  on  secondary  and  inferior 
things.  One  thing  is  needful. 

You  have  been  favoured  by  Providence  with  a  de 
gree  of  acceptance  as  a  writer  which  you  had  not 
dared  to  expect,  and  for  which  you  cannot  be  too 
thankful ;  but  the  same  little  attractions  might  have 


6  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

been  cast  around  the  great  tilings  of  the  kingdom. 
Consider  these  hints. 

1.  If  your  life  be  spared,  you  will  never  sec  a 
time  in  which,  better  than  now,  you  can  lay  up  a  store 
of  sermons.     Eyesight,  manual   dexterity,  memory, 
and  vivacity  must  necessarily  be  on  the  wane. 

2.  Consider  in  what  manner  you  have  produced 
those  things  which  have  gained  a  little  popularity. 
They  have  all  been  written  currcnie  calamo  /  especial 
ly  those  which  have  most  life  in  them  were  so  writ 
ten.     Not  so  most  of  your  sermons.    Turn  over  a  new 
leaf.     Do  not  lay  out  new  plans  too  carefully.    Write 
while  you  are  warm.     Do  not  be  avaricious  of  your 
best  thoughts,  nor  reserve  warm  ideas  for  the  last. 
This  is  like  flooding  the  stomach  of  guests  with  soups, 
before  dinner.     Much  of  Jay's  excellence  arises  from 
this.     Try  your  father's  recommendation  of  writing 
•with,  great  rapidity  what  first  occurs  to  you.     This 
you  may  methodize  afterwards. 

3.  You  study  much  of  the  Scriptures,  and  some 
times  warm  over  the  sacred  page.     Avail  yourself  of 
these  moments,  and  let  your  discoveries  and  sugges 
tions  flow  into  the  channel  of  a  sermon. 

4.  Be  willing  to  write  even  part  of  a  sermon.    Per 
haps  you  will  do  the  whole.     If  not,  remember  how 
few  of  these  fragments  have  ever  been  lost  to  you  ;  is 
there  one,  the  time  spent  on  which  you  regret  ? 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  7 

5.  You  have  prayed  to  have  your  tastes,  feelings, 
and  pursuits  more  concentrated  on  divine  things ;  and, 
for  a  short  time  past,  you  have  felt  as  if  this  grace 
had  in  some  degree  been  granted  to  you.     Cherish 
this  feeling,  and  make  it  available  towards  pulpit 
exercises. 

6.  God  has  granted  you  better  health.    Be  tenderly 
thankful  for  such  a  benefit,  and  keep  your  harness 
always  bright,  that  you  may  be  ready  as  soon  as  God 
shall  cause  the  trumpet  to  sound,  to  go  out  into  the 
regular  ranks. 

7.  You  have  a  text-book.    Use  it.    Spend  more  time 
on  it.    Collect  your  scattered  fragments.    Mortify  that 
procrastination  which  keeps  so  many  plans  in  pello. 

§11.  Offhand  Writing. — If  I  have  ever  written  any 
thing  acceptably,  it  has  been  with  a  free  pen,  and  from 
the  full  heart ;  not  from  compiled  stores,  though  I  have 
done  much  of  the  latter  also.  One  who  has  preached 
in  so  many  fields,  and  exactly  surveyed  so  few,  had 
well  confine  himself  to  this  sort  of  offhand  and  dis 
cursive  composition.  "What  is  the  reason  that,  having 
plainly  shown  a  turn  for  a  lively,  superficial,  easy  kind 
of  chat,  enlivened  by  a  few  out-of-the-way  stories, 
&c.,  &c.,  I  have  never  perpetrated  any  thing  like  a 
book  of  this  kind,  save  the  two  books  for  the  working- 
folks,  which  were  mere  strung  beads  ?  And  why  have 


8  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

I,  contrary  to  my  natural  turn,  always  preached  in 
the  commonplace  humdrum  manner,  instead  of  giving 
free  vent  to  the  things  that  come  into  my  head  ?  I 
have  been  gathering  long  enough  ;  it  is  time  for  me 
to  write  more,  and  to  write  something  which  may  at 
tract  attention  to  the  things  of  God,  and  do  good  to 
people  who  will  not  read  heavy,  learned  books.  I  have 
penned  a  great  deal,  but  mostly  under  some  constraint, 
which  has  pent  me  up  and  hampered  me.  It  is  high 
time  that  I  followed  nature,  and  let  out  the  stream 
without  constraint.  Sometimes  I  have  written  for 
children,  and  this  was  of  course  a  great  restraint ;  at 
other  times  for  newspapers,  where  I  had  to  be  very 
short,  or  very  careful  not  to  offend ;  and  in  the  case 
of  the  Sunday-School  Journal,  for  which  I  have  done 
a  good  deal,  I  have  had  to  avoid  every  thing  secta 
rian.  When  I  wrote  for  the  Review,  which  pieces 
have  been  most  laboured,  I  have  necessarily  tied  my 
self  up  to  the  formal  paces  demanded  in  such  affairs. 
And  as  I  said,  my  sermons  have  never  got  clear  of  the 
formality  with  which  I  unfortunately  began  to  write. 
I  am  conscious  of  a  great  desire  to  use  my  poor,  and 
almost  single  talent  of  writing  for  the  people,  in  some 
way  which  may  recommend  religion  more  than  I  have 
ever  done  yet. 

§  12.  Earnest  Preaching. — I  have  been  reading  an 


HOMILETICAL  PARAGRAPHS.  9 

article  on  the  Eloquence  of  the  Pulpit  in  the  Mon- 
tauban  "  Revue  Theologique  "  for  the  present  month, 
written  by  Adolphe  Monod.  It  is  one  of  the  best 
things  I  ever  read  on  the  subject.  He  makes  elocu 
tion  to  depend  on  the  inward  conception  and  feeling. 
The  work  must  begin  from  within. 

The  great  reason  why  we  have  so  little  good 
preaching  is  that  we  have  so  little  piety.  To  be  elo 
quent  one  must  be  in  earnest ;  he  must  not  only  act 
as  if  he  were  in  earnest,  or  try  to  be  in  earnest,  but 
be  in  earnest,  or  he  cannot  be  effective. 

We  have  loud  and  vehement,  we  have  smooth  and 
graceful,  we  have  splendid  and  elaborate  preaching, 
but  very  little  that  is  earnest.  One  man  who  so 
feels  for  the  souls  of  his  hearers  as  to  be  ready  to 
weep  over  them — will  assuredly  make  himself  felt. 

This  is  what  makes •  effective  ;  he  really  feels 

what  he  says.  This  made  Cookman  eloquent.  This 
especially  was  the  charm  of  Summerfield,  above  all 
men  I  ever  heard.  "We  must  aim  therefore  at  high 
degrees  of  warmth  in  our  religious  exercises,  if  we 
would  produce  an  impression  upon  the  public  mind. 
Two  or  three  such  preachers  in  our  Old  School  Church 

as is,  would  make  themselves  felt  throughout 

the  country.  Oh !  that  we  had  them  !  Oh  !  that 
those  we  had  were  inspired  with  greater  zeal ! 

Without  any  increase  of  our  numbers,  the  very 
1* 


10  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

men  we  now  have,  if  actuated  with  burning  zeal 
for  God,  might  work  a  mighty  reformation  in  our 
country. 

§  13.  New  Sermons. — Philip  Henry  used  to  love 
to  preach  sermons  which  were  "  newly  studied." 
It  is  a  crying  sin  of  mine  that  I  am  so  ready  to  go  to 
my  old  store.  Even  when  I  preach  to  the  blacks,  I 
ought,  for  my  own  sake,  no  less  than  for  theirs,  to 
prepare  a  plan,  and  study  it  out.  If  I  daily  had  on 
hand  some  sermon  on  an  important  passage,  I  should 
be  daily  learning  more  Scripture  and  more  theology. 

§  14.  Great  Subjects. — Again  I  am  impressed 
with  what  I  have  already  mentioned  in  this  book, 
viz.,  the  importance  of  choosing  great  subjects  for  ser 
mons  ;  such  as  Creation,  the  Deluge,  the  Atonement, 
the  Last  Things.  This  is  the  more  important  consid 
ering  that  I  preach  only  occasionally,  and  write 
seldom.*  These  discourses  ought  to  be  highly  elabo 
rated.  I  have  no  sermons  such  as  I  ought  to  preach, 
and  such  as  I  think  I  have  preached  extempore. 
Humphrey's  remarks  on  easy  engraving  have  given 
me  new  thoughts  on  easy  writing.  I  have  often  in 
tended  to  write  out  a  discourse  which  I  have  preached 
with  some  sense  of  doing  better  than  common ;  but 
as  far  as  I  remember,  I  have  never  yet  done  it. 

*  He  was  at  this  time  Professor  in  the  College  of  New  Jersey. 


HOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  11 

§  15.  Themes  for  Preaching. — They  should  be 
great  themes — the  great  themes.  These  are  many. 
Evil  of  dwelling  on  the  smaller  themes.  They  are 
such  as  move  the  feelings.  The  great  questions  which 
have  agitated  the  world — which  agitate  our  own 
bosoms — which  we  should  like  to  have  settled  before 
we  die — which  we  should  ask  an  Apostle  about  if  he 
were  here.  These  are  to  general  Scripture  truth, 
what  great  mountains  are  in  Geography.  Some,  anx 
ious  to  avoid  hackneyed  topics,  omit  the  greatest. 
Just  as  if  we  should  describe  Switzerland  and  omit 
the  Alps. 

Some  ministers  preach  twenty  years,  and  yet 
never  preach  on  Judgment,  Hell,  the  Crucifixion,  the 
essence  of  Saving  Faith — nor  on  those  great  themes 
which  in  all  ages  affect  children,  and  affect  the  com 
mon  mind,  such -as  the  Deluge,  the  sacrifice  intended, 
of  Isaac,  the  death  of  Absalom,  the  parable  of  Laz 
arus.  The  Methodists  constantly  pick  out  these  strik 
ing  themes,  and  herein  they  gain  a  just  advantage 
over  us. 

A  man  should  begin  early  to  grapple  with  great 
subjects.  An  athleta "(2  Tim.  2,  5)  gains  might  only 
by  great  exertions.  So  that  a  man  does  not  over 
strain  his  powers,  the  more  he  wrestles  the  better, 
but  he  must  wrestle,  and  not  merely  take  a  great 
subject,  and  dream  over  it  or  play  with  it. 


12  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

Evil  of  seeking  new  and  recondite  subjects.  All 
the  great  subjects  are  old  and  often  treated.  False 
refinement  and  wire-drawing.  Analogy  of  the  great 
sculptors  and  painters.  Many  took  the  same  themes. 
Greek  tragedians.  !N"o  two  men  will  treat  the  same 
subject  alike,  unless  they  borrow  from  one  another. 

§  16.  Sermon-writing. — As  I  consider  sermoniz 
ing  a  great  art,  and  one  of  the  chief  employments  of 
a  minister,  I  think  it  good  from  time  to  time,  to  set 
down  the  results  of  my  experience  ;  though  I  have  a 
painful  consciousness  of  my  own  want  of  proficiency. 

In  the  early  part  of  my  ministry  there  were  two 
methods  of  preparation,  which  I  highly  valued,  both 
of  wrhich  I  now  reject. 

1.  It  was  my  manner  to  take  some  doctrinal  head, 
such  as  Justification,  and  carefully  to  read  the  best 
authors  on  it,  such  as  Calvin,  Witsius,  Markius, 
Dwight,  making  notes  as  I  went  along,  and  then  en 
deavouring,  when  I  wrote,  to  introduce  the  best 
things  I  could  remember  from  these  authors.  I  had 
not  then  learned,  that  the  only  way  to  profit  from 
such  authors,  is  to  let  their  matter  digest  in  the  mind, 
and  then  to  write  freely,  with  a  total  forgetfulness  of 
them.  Only  in  this  way,  does  it  become  our  own. 
Only  in  this  way  does  it  take  a  natural  method,  and 
have  a  natural  liveliness.  It  is  difficult  to  reject  the 


IIOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  13 

tilings  remembered,  and  the  effort  at  recollection  is 
itself  an  incumbrance.  I  would  advise  a  preacher,  in 
preparation,  to  take  no  notes.  I  would  advise  him  to 
take  no  schedule  of  arrangement  from  another.  If 
one  thinks  at  all  for  himself,  his  train  of  thoughts  will 
be  his  own,  and  this  will  suggest  its  own  arrange 
ment.  There  is  something  unreasonable  in  setting 
out  with  a  preadj usted  method.  It  is  to  attempt  a 
classification,  before  we  have  that  which  is  to  be 
classified.  It  produces  a  stiffness,  hardness,  and  want 
of  continuity,  which  are  great  faults.  The  true  way 
is,  be  full  of  the  subject,  and  then  write  with  perfect 
freedom,  beginning  at  any  corner  of  the  subject. 

2.  Another  method  which  I  pursued,  was  to 
choose  a  text,  and  then  having  written  out  in  full  all 
the  parallel  passages,  to  classify  them,  and  found  my 
divisions  on  this  classification.  Then  to  correct  all 
these  passages,  interweaving  them  with  my  own  re 
marks.  I  flattered  myself  that  this  was  a  happy 
method,  because  it  made  my  sermon  scriptural.  It 
did  so  indeed,  but  it  had  great  disadvantages.  The 
nexus  between  the  texts  was  factitious  ;  often  refined 
and  recondite  ;  and  always  more  obvious  to  the 
writer  than  it  could  be  to  the  reader.  It  prevented 
the  flow  of  thought  in  a  natural  channel.  It  was  like 
a  number  of  lakes  connected  by  artificial  canals,  as 
compared  with  a  flowing  natural  stream.  The  dis- 


14  THOUGHTS    ON    PLEACHING. 

course  was  disjointed,  and  overladen  with  texts,  and 
uninteresting.  I  am  convinced  that  those  passages  of 
Scripture  which  suggest  themselves  unsought,  in 
rapid  writing  or  speaking,  are  the  most  effective ; 
nay,  that  one  such  is  worth  a  hundred  lugged  in  collo 
obtorto.  To  be  Scriptural  in  preaching,  we  must  be 
familiar  with  the  Bible  at  common  times.  Hence 
one  of  the  great  advantages  of  preaching  without 
notes,  even  in  regard  to  method.  Such  is  the  sympa 
thy  between  soul  and  soul,  that  a  connection  of 
thoughts  which  is  easy,  agreeable,  and  awakening 
to  the  hearer,  will  always  be  found  to  be  that  which 
has  been  natural  and  unconstrained,  in  the  mind  of 
the  preacher.  The  best  way  is,  to  study  the  parallel 
places  exegetically,  perhaps  as  they  lie  in  the  Scrip 
ture,  and  then  to  let  them  come  in  or  not,  as  they 
may  suggest  themselves  during  preparation. 

§  IT.  The  Power  of  the  Pulpit. — I  fear  none  of 
us  apprehend  as  we  ought  to  do  the  value  of  the 
preacher's  office.  Our  young  men  do  not  gird  them 
selves  for  it  with  the  spirit  of  those  who  are  on  the 
eve  of  a  great  conflict ;  nor  do  they  prepare  as  those 
who  are  to  lay  their  hands  upon  the  springs  of  the 
mightiest  passions,  and  stir  up  to  their  depths  the 
ocean  of  human  feelings.  Where  this  estimate  of  the 
work  prevails,  men  even  of  inferior  training  accom- 


HOMILETICAL    PAKAGKAPHS.  15 

plish  much ;  such  as  Summerfield,  and   even  . 

The  pulpit  will  still  remain  the  grand  means  of  affect 
ing  the  mass  of  men.  It  is  God's  own  method,  and 
he  will  honour  it.  The  work  done  by  Wesley  and  by 
Whitefield,  and  by  Christmas  Evans  in  Wales,  could 
not  have  been  accomplished  by  any  other  human 
agency — the  press,  for  instance.  In  every  age,  great 
reformers  have  been  great  preachers  ;  and  even  in  the 
corrupt  Roman  Church,  the  most  wonderful  effects 
have  been  produced  by  preaching.  Bourdaloue  and 
Massillon  were  successively  brought  to  Paris  from  the 
Provinces ;  and  when  the  former,  late  in  life,  most 
pathetically  entreated  that  he  might  go  into  retire 
ment,  and  at  first  was  gratified,  his  Jesuit  superiors 
used  means  with  the  Pope  to  have  him  restored  to  the 
metropolis. 

To  be  a  great  preacher  a  man  must  be  nothing 
else.  The  daily  exercises  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero 
may  give  us  a  hint  of  the  devotion  which  is  necessary. 
The  analogy  of  all  other  arts  and  sciences  may  in 
struct.  There  are  among  us  preachers  who  may  be 
considered  good,  and  in  a  certain  sense  great  ones, 
who  spend  their  principal  strength  during  the  week 
upon  other  pursuits.  They  write  essays,  systems, 
and  commentaries.  It  may  be  observed  of  them  all, 
that  however  useful  they  may  be,  these  are  not  the 
men  who  move  and  warm  and  melt  and  mould  the 


16  THOUGHTS    ON    PBEACHING. 

public  masses.  Indeed,  I  think,  to  be  a  great  preach 
er,  a  man  must  lay  his  account  to  forego  that  reputa 
tion  which  comes  from  erudition  and  literature.  The 
channel  must  be  narrowed,  that  the  stream  may  flow 
in  a  rapid  current,  and  fall  with  mighty  impression. 
Even  the  learning  of  the  schools  must  undergo  a  great 
process  of  transmutation  and  assimilation,  before  it  is 
suitable  to  be  produced  in  the  pulpit.  Great  is  the 
difference,  though  little  apprehended,  between  a  the 
ological  dissertation  and  a  sermon,  on  the  same  subject. 
The  crude  matter  falls  heavily  upon  the  popular  ear. 
Only  the  last  exquisite  results  of  mental  action  are 
proper  for  public  address.  Not  that  the  truth  of  doc 
trine  is  to  be  neglected  ;  this  is  the  very  substance  of 
all  good  sermons,  and  of  every  sentence  of  them,  even 
in  their  most  impassioned  parts  ;  but  it  must  have  un 
dergone  a  great  change  in  the  mind  of  the  preacher, 
and  present  itself  in  a  more  popular  form,  with  more 
of  colour  of  imagination  and  warmth  of  passion,  be 
fore  it  can  reach  the  deep  places  of  the  heart  with  due 
effect. 

The  power  of  the  preacher  is  not  to  be  attained  by 
rhetorical  studies.  These  have  their  place,  but  it  is  an 
inferior  and  subsidiary  one  ;  and  the  result  of  undue 
attention  to  them  is  beautiful  debility  and  cold  polish. 
Let  the  imbecile  elegancies  of  Blair  be  an  everlasting 
beacon  to  the  student  of  homiletics.  It  has  been  ob- 


HOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS  IT 

served,  that  the  age  of  elegant  criticism  follows  that 
of  poetry  and  eloquence.  It  would  seem  that  the 
creative  and  critical  spirit  cannot  coexist.  The  scruple 
and  hesitation  of  rhetorical  criticism  are  deadly  foes 
to  passion,  the  true  source  of  effective  discourse.  To 
be  powerful  in  pulpit  address,  the  preacher  must  be 
full  to  overflowing  of  his  theme,  affected  in  due  mea 
sure  by  every  truth  he  handles,  and  in  full  view,  dur 
ing  all  his  preparation  and  all  his  discourse,  of  the 
minds  which  he  is  to  reach. 

§  18.  Self-repetition  in  Preaching. — It  has  been 
often  observed,  that  preachers  who  rely  on  their  ex 
temporaneous  powers,  are  very  apt  to  fall  into  a  great 
sameness.  They  repeat  the  same  thoughts  and  the 
same  trains  of  thought,  and  at  length  almost  the  same 
sermons  :  and  this  they  do  without  being  conscious  of 
it.  The  same  thing  occurs  to  them  which  happens 
to  some  story-tellers  :  who  remember  the  anecdote 
perfectly,  but  forget  that  they  have  told  it  before. 
Mere  writing  is  not  a  certain  preventive  of  this  evil, 
but  it  has  an  excellent  tendency  to  prevent  it ;  as  in 
suring  an  excellent  amount  of  fresh  study,  and  by 
keeping  the  mind,  for  longer  periods  and  with  greater 
deliberation,  in  view  of  the  truth. 

The  evil  is  so  disastrous,  that  there  should  be  a 
constant  effort  to  avoid  it.  Without  this  struggle,  the 


18  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

preacher,  on  arriving  at  certain  topics,  -which  are  fa 
miliar,  will,  by  the  simple  influence  of  association, 
hitch  into  the  old  rut,  and  treat  them  exactly  as  he 
has  treated  them  before.  We  observe  this  in  extem 
poraneous  prayers,  which  with  some  good  men  become 
as  stereotyped  as  if  they  had  been  committed  to  mem 
ory  :  as,  indeed,  though  unconsciously,  they  have 
been.  We  observe  the  same  thing  in  that  part  of 
sermons,  on  which  least  of  new  meditation  has  been 
bestowed,  namely,  the  conclusion.  This  accounts  for 
the  familiar  fact,  that  some  very  fluent  extempora 
neous  preachers  are  quite  popular  abroad,  while  at 
home,  among  their  own  flocks,  they  have  lost  all 
power,  and  seem  to  the  people  to  be  preaching  the 
same  discourse  over  and  over. 

The  only  remedy  for  this  evil  is  the  obvious  one 
of  devoting  the  mind  to  the  origination  of  new  trains 
of  thought,  which  may  vary,  complete,  or  supersede 
the  old  ones.  There  may  be  superficial  reflection  and 
even  superficial  writing  ;  but  the  meditation  which  is 
intended  must  go  deeply  into  thorough  investigation, 
and  follow  out  the  thoughts  into  new  relations.  It 
must  be  the  habit  of  the  preacher  to  be  continually 
opening  new  veins,  and  deeply  considering  subjects 
allied  to  those  on  which  he  is  to  preach.  This  habit 
is  greatly  aided  by  judicious  reading  on  theological 
topics.  A  man  will  be  as  his  books.  But  of  all 


IIOMILETICAL    PAEAGBAPHS.  19 

means,  none  is  so  effectual  as  the  perpetual  study  of 
the  Scriptures.  Let  a  man  be  interested  in  them  day 
and  night,  continually  labouring  in  this  mine,  and, 
whether  he  write  or  not,  he  will  be  effectually  secured 
against  self-repetition.  There  is  such  profundity, 
comprehensiveness  and  variety  in  the  Word  of  God, 
that  it  is  a  library  of  itself.  There  is  such  a  freshness 
in  its  mode  of  presenting  truth,  that  he  who  is  perpet 
ually  conversant  with  it  can  scarcely  be  dull. 

The  liveliest  preachers  are  those  who  are  most  fa 
miliar  with  the  Bible,  without  note  or  comment ;  and 
we  frequently  find  them  among  men  who  have  had  no 
education  better  than  that  of  the  common  school.  It 
was  this  which  gave  such  animation  to  the  vivid  books 
and  discourses  of  the  Puritans.  As  there  is  no  poetry 
so  rich  and  bold  as  that  of  the  Bible,  so  he  who  daily 
makes  this  his  study,  will  even  on  human  principles 
be  awakened,  and  acquire  a  striking  manner  of  con 
veying  his  thoughts.  The  sacred  books  are  full  of 
fact,  example,  and  illustration,  which  with  copiousness 
and  variety  will  cluster  around  the  truths  which  the 
man  of  God  derives  from  the  same  source.  One 
preacher  gives  us  naked  heads  of  theology  ;  they  are 
true,  Scriptural,  and  important,  but  they  are  uninter 
esting,  especially  when  reiterated  for  the  thousandth 
time  in  the  same  naked  manner.  Another  gives  us 
the  same  truths,  but  each  of  them  brings  in  its  train 


20  THOUGHTS    ON    PKE  ACHING. 

a  retinue  of  Scriptural  example,  history,  a  figure  by 
way  of  illustration  ;  and  a  variety  hence  arises  which 
is  perpetually  becoming  richer  as  the  preacher  goes 
more  deeply  into  the  mine  of  Scripture.  There  are 
some  great  preachers  who,  like  Wlritefield,  do  not  ap 
pear  to  bestow  great  labour  on  the  preparation  of 
particular  discourses ;  but  it  may  be  observed,  that 
these  are  always  persons  whose  life  is  a  study  of  the 
Word.  Each  sermon  is  an  outflowing  from  a  foun 
tain  which  is  constantly  full.  The  Bible  is,  after  all, 
the  one  book  of  the  preacher.  He  who  is  most  famil 
iar  with  it,  will  become  most  like  it ;  and  this  in  re 
spect  to  every  one  of  its  wonderful  qualities  ;  and  will 
bring  forth  from  his  treasury  things  new  and  old. 

§  19.  Scripture  Citation  in  Preaching. — Do  not 
cite  many  Scripture  references  in  your  notes.  You 
often  find  them  less  available  than  those  which  occur 
inter  loquendum.  The  best  way  of  preparing  for 
prompt  quotation,  is  to  be  daily  conversant  with 
Scripture,  and  to  commit  large  portions  to  memory. 
I  regret  more  than  I  can  express,  my  neglect  of  this 
in  former  years.  The  next  best  way,  and  a  means  of 
getting  the  facility  just  mentioned,  is,  in  preparing 
for  a  given  performance,  to  read  attentively  and  with 
meditation  all  the  pertinent  Scriptures,  committing  as 
many  as  possible  to  memory,  but  not  referring  them 


IIOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  21 

to  particular  places,  or  determining  to  use  this  or  that 
without  fail ;  it  is  enough  to  imbue  the  mind  with 
them,  and  leave  the  use  of  any  or  all  to  be  prompted 
by  the  impulse  of  the  moment.  The  best  effect  of 
many  Scripture  texts  on  a  sermon  is  often  that  which 
does  not  lead  to  a  direct  rehearsal  of  them.  They 
suggest  new  thoughts  and  illustrations,  and  afford  the 
very  best  preventive  of  that  sameness  and  routine, 
into  which  most  extempore  preachers  fall.  The  ten 
dency  in  all,  is  to  be  contented  with  a  narrow  stock 
of  texts.  Take  almost  any  extemporaneous  preacher, 
whom  you  hear  often,  and  observe  how  seldom  he 
quotes  a  new  text,  one  which  you  have  not  heard  him 
quote  before.  How  many  noble  incidents  in  the  Old 
Testament  history,  touching  emblems  in  the  Levitical 
ritual,  and  poetic  strains  of  the  Prophets,  are  never 
introduced  into  the  pulpit !  All  which  commends 
the  daily  interested  study  of  the  Bible. 

§  20.  Uninvited  Trains  of  Thought.  —  The 
thoughts  which  come  to  us  unasked,  and  the  trains 
which  float  in  the  twilight  of  our  careless  hours,  are 
often  those  which  are  most  precious,  longest  remem 
bered,  and  most  deep  in  their  influence  on  future  life. 
They  are  sometimes  the  result  of  long  studies  pursued 
at  irregular  intervals  during  previous  years,  the  dis 
tillation  from  many  gathered  flowers,  and  therefore 


22  THOUGHTS    OX    PREACHING. 

they  cannot  be  looked  for  as  daily  visitations.  As 
they  will  not  come  for  being  called,  so  they  will  not 
stay  for  being  courted.  And  when  they  give  the  first 
intimations  of  their  approach,  we  should  lay  aside 
lesser  employments  and  joys  ;  as  we  open  our  windows 
when  the  fragrance  of  orchards  is  wafted  on  the  breeze. 
Yet  there  is  a  posture  of  soul,  better  fitted  than  all 
others  for  the  reception  of  these  revelations ;  and 
there  are  pursuits  and  habits  so  alien  to  them  as  to 
be  almost  prohibitions. 

"We  must  not  look  for  them  in  the  crowd  of  mam 
mon-mongers,  or  amidst  the  clangour  of  political 
array,  or  the  mining  drudgery  of  technical  study. 
They  steal  over  us  rather  when  we  close  the  eye  at 
nightfall,  listening  to  the  drowsy  music  of  the 
autumnal  insect-tribe ;  when  we  walk  alone  in  the 
sight  of  mountains,  or  on  the  sea-shore  ;  or  when  we 
kneel  before  the  open  Bible,  and  meditate  on  the 
oriental  usages  of  inspiration.  Enthusiasts  of  various 
sects  have  taken  these  goodly  visions  for  direct  reve 
lations  of  new  truths  :  and  mystics  have  deemed  them 
selves  inspired.  But  they  are,  after  all,  only  higher 
manifestations  of  the  Reason  which  is  common  to  us 
all.  We  deny  not  that  a  Divine  agent  is  sometimes 
at  work,  but  the  operation  follows  the  laws  of  our 
rational  humanity,  and  conforms  itself  to  the  condi 
tions  of  all  influence  from  above  upon  free  creatures. 


HOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  23 

The  mind  though  elevated  is  not  overborne.  The 
free-thinking  principle  is  the  same  as  before,  though 
raised  to  a  loftier  point  of  observation.  God,  who 
speaks  in  this  silence,  speaks  by  the  word  which  was 
recorded  hundreds  of  years  ago  ;  and  though  chapter 
or  verse  or  textual  phrase  may  not  always  be  recog 
nized,  the  truths  which  ring  in  the  ear  are  echoes 
from  Sinai  or  from  Zion.  That  word  of  the  Lord 
which  abideth  forever,  has  an  infinite  variety  in  its 
combinations  and  suggestions.  It  is  a  well  whose 
sources  are  hidden  in  infinite  wisdom,  and  whose 
flow  is  fresh  and  abundant  and  sparkling  to  everlast 
ing  periods. 

We  place  ourselves  in  the  way  of  such  favoured 
contemplations,  when  we  linger  long  and  often  over 
the  holy  pages,  and  imbue  our  thoughts  with  the 
lessons  of  Apostles  and  Prophets.  To  be  inspired 
like  them,  we  may  not  pray  for,  in  this  world,  but 
we  may  catch  a  kindred  glow  from  their  heavenly 
rapture,  sympathize  with  their  affections,  carry  out 
the  trains  which  they  have  begun,  harmonize  the 
scattered  propositions  which  they  have  announced, 
and  live  over  again  in  our  experience  the  divine 
happiness  of  their  sanctification.  Though  our  circum 
stances  may  be  unlike  theirs,  in  the  proportion  in 
which  the  new  world  is  unlike  the  old,  our  faith  and 
love  may  be  essentially  the  same,  and  may  at  some 


24:  THOUGHTS   ON    PKEACHING. 

favoured  moments  realize  to  us  glories  of  religious 
awe  or  fruition,  which  after  many  years  of  Scriptural 
study,  shall  still  be  new  and  unwonted.  It  is  thus 
that  Christian  experience  is  a  book,  of  which  the 
page  we  are  turning  over  to-day,  is  unlike  all  that 
have  filled  the  volume  before. 

To  gain  these  results,  a  man  must  in  some  degree 
live  apart.  He  must  leave  the  beaten  track,  and 
converse  less  with  earth  than  heaven.  There  are 
meditations  which  the  common  talk  and  worldly 
reading  of  our  busy  day  do  not  prompt  and  cannot 
represent.  They  are  beyond  the  scope  of  science, 
and  un whispered  in  the  halls  of  letters,  and  the  galle 
ries  of  art.  But  as  little  should  we  seek  them  in  the 
cell  of  the  ascetic.  True  love  and  true  humility, 
which  are  the  nurses  of  such  a  progeny,  are  closely 
connected  with  familiar  converse  with  our  kind. 
Best  thoughts  are  those  which  spring  up  under  the 
shower  of  tears  that  falls  over  the  ills  of  distressed 
fellow-creatures.  Jesus  Christ  is  still  present  by  his 
Spirit  w^here  broken  hearts  are  to  be  bound  up.  The 
house  of  mourning  and  the  house  of  prayer  are  the 
places  where  the  heart  is  made  better. 

§  21.  Preaching,  Remarks  struck  out  in  Talk 
with  J.  A.  A.  —  1.  Almost  all  extemporaneous 
preachers  have  this  fault ;  they  talk  about  the  way 


HOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  25 

in  which  they  are  preaching — Tims  :  "  After  a  few 
preliminary  remarks,  I  shall  proceed  to,"  &c. ;  or, 
"  What  I  lay  down  shall  take  the  form  of  general 
principles."  "  I  come  with  hesitation,"  &c.  "  I  shall 
be  more  brief  on  this  point."  "  You  will  observe 
that  in  this  discussion  I  do  so  and  so."  Avoid  all 
such  observations. — More  generally  still,  avoid  all 
that  brings  the  speaker's  personality  before  the  hearer. 
A  better  model  than  our  honoured  father,  in  this, 
there  could  not  be. 

2.  Whenever  I  write  down  heads,  from  which  to 
preach  extempore,  I  always  find  myself  disappointed, 
by  not  having  as  much  to  say  under  each  as  I  thought. 
But  whenever  I  premeditate  a  subject  and  take  my 
pen  to  write  on  it,  I  always  find  myself  disappointed 
in  a  way  exactly  opposite. 

3.  Addison  says  truly,  there  is  this  difference  be 
tween  him  and  me.     I  am  more  warm  and  ornate 
when  I  do  not  write  ;  he,  when  he  does. 

4.  As  men  who  strut  in  walking,  sometimes  find 
it  difficult  to  get  out  of  it,  and  step  in  the  ordinary 
way,  so  in  writing  men  get  into  a  measured,  rhyth 
mical,  ornamental  flow  of  diction,  and  find  it  hard, 
even  when  the  subject  demands  it,  to  come  down  to 
the  pedestrian  style..    Hence  a  great  argument  for 
simplicity.     What  a  wonderful  simplicity  in  Goethe  ! 
It  is  his  characteristic  in  regard  to  style.     Even  Yol- 

2 


26  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

taire,  simple  as  his  structure  of  sentence  always  lies, 
has  a  mannerism :  so  has  Macaulay.  The  reader 
comes  to  look  for  a  certain  pungent  apodosis.  In 
Goethe,  nothing  leads  you  to  expect  any  particular 
bringing  up  of  the  period,  or  antithesis  of  the  thought. 

§  22.  Overhaul  Sermons. — It  strikes  me  as  a 
great  neglect  that  I  have  scarcely  ever  looked  over 
my  pulpit  MSS.  except  when  I  was  going  to  preach. 
There  is  much  work  to  be  done  in  this  field  at  other 
times. 

§  23.  On  Writing  down  One's  Thoughts. — I  mean 
such  writing  as  I  put  in  this  book. 

1.  "Writing  does  good  to  one's  thinking. 

2.  It  has  the  same  effect  in  part  as  animated  con 
versation. 

3.  Many  good  thoughts  are  lost  that  might  have 
been  preserved  in  this  way. 

4.  Many  good  trains  are  carried  to  greater  length 
by  this  means. 

5.  Style  is  improved,  especially  by  promptness  and 
facility.     Earnestness  and  impressiveness  in  writing 
grow  as  one  advances. 

6.  Write  till  you  feel  a  glow. 

7.  Write  when  you  feel  a  glow.    You  will  otherwise 
lose  the  very  best  things  that  ever  occur  to  you.     Re 
member  Pascal  (vid.  Bib.  Rep.  Ap.  1845). 


IIOMILETICAL    PAKAGKAPHS.  27 

8.  This  is  one  of  the  chief  exercises  of  mind ; 
therefore  embrace  every  occasion. 

9.  Choose   topics  which  will   excite  you  in   the 
greatest  degree.    Choose  the  most  important  subjects, 
difficulties  but  not  niceties,  fundamentals,  cardinal  and 
central  points,  those  which  touch  the  heart  of  sys 
tems. 

10.  Often  give  full  scope  to  freedom  of  thought 
and  style.    Thought  creates  style.    If  you  write  down 
to  your  readers,  you  lose  this  particular  advantage 
of  writing,  as  exercising  thought. 

Even  in  sermons  to  intelligent  audiences  there 
will  be  much  of  this,  necessarily.  It  is  desirable, 
therefore,  to  have  some  outlet  for  thoughts  more  free 
and  unobstructed.  The  reflex  influence  of  perfectly 
free  composition  is  very  great.  "What  we  so  write, 
even  in  fragments,  is  remembered  by  us,  goes  to  es 
tablish  opinions,  lays  up  arguments,  gives  matter  for 
extemporaneous  discourse,  and  moulds  the  character. 

11.  Devotional  writing  and  prayer   are   of   the 
highest  moment. 

12.  It  matters  comparatively  little  whether  you 
ever  read  over  what  you  have  written  or  not. 

§  24.  Mode  of  making  Brief. — I  follow  a  brief 
penned  at  my  table  during  a  short  interval.  I  made 
it  thus  :  mere  catch-words — took  a  general  thought  to 


28  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

start  with,  let  the  next  come  of  itself,  then  the  next, 
and  so  on  without  effort.  It  served  well.  The  thing 
to  be  noted  is,  that  in  a  few  moments,  ly  letting  the 
mind  flow,  and  not  interfering  with  the  flow,  one  may 
jot  down  materials  for  a  long  discourse.  It  was  not 
merely  heads :  these  are  barren,  they  are  disconnected ; 
it  was  concatenation,  it  was  genesis. 

I  consider  this  a  little  new,  but  Kevins  showed  me 
something  like  it  for  Sabbath  lectures ;  I  have  done 
too  much  in  the  way  of  naked  skeleton.  I  wish  I 
could  embody  my  thoughts  in  a  formula ;  try  it  thus : 

1.  Write  rapid  sketch,  the  faster  the  better. 

2.  In  first  draught  omit  all  partition,  and  do  not 
force  your  mind  to  method. 

3.  Let  thought  generate  thought. 

4.  Do  not  dwell  on  particulars  ;  leave  all  amplifica 
tion  for  the  pulpit. 

5.  Keep  the  mind  in  a  glow. 

6.  Come  to  it  with  a  full  mind. 

7.  Forget  all  care  of  language. 

8.  Forget  all  previous  cramming,  research,  quota 
tion,  and  study. 

9.  In  delivery,  learn  to  know  when  to  dwell  on  a 
point ;  let  the  enlargement  be,  not  where  you  deter 
mined  in  your  closet  it  should  be  ;  but  where  you  feel 
the  spring  flowing  as  you  speak — let  it  gush.    Let  con 
templation  have  place  while  you  speak. 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  29 

For  this,  pauses  are  all  important.  Thus  Rob. 
Hall  preached.  Tims  my  beloved  honoured  father, 
above  all  men  I  ever  heard ;  his  eye  kindled,  his  face 
was  radiant ;  he  forgot  the  people ;  and  as  he  was  rapt 
in  contemplation,  he  thought  aloud. 

All  this  is  connected  with  the  subject  of  gifts  in 
preaching  ;  and  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  aid 
ing  the  speaker.  Holy  emotions  are  indispensable. 
Hence  the  best  sermons  can  never  be  exactly  repro 
duced — much  less  written.  The  best  written  discourse 
of  my  father  is  no  more  to  his  best  preaching,  than  a 
black  candle  is  to  a  burning  flame. 

§  25.  Extempore  Preaching. — This  afternoon  I 
made  another  trial  of  the  method  mentioned  above. 
I  found  it  good  as  far  as  tried.  The  fault  was,  that  I 
used  an  old  skeleton,  and  used  my  method  only  in  the 
application. 

Nota  ~bene.  It  would  be  all  the  better  if  I  made  my 
brief  early  in  the  week. 

§  26.  Sermonizing. — I  have  just  finished  a  sermon 
on  Isa.  59,  ult.  I  am  not  pleased.  I  was  "  ham 
pered  "  throughout,  by  a  preconcerted  skeleton.  Thus 
it  worked.  Things  would  arise  in  my  mind,  and  flow 
into  my  pen  just  at  the  right  place,  but  I  could  not 
use  them,  'because  they  belonged  to  another  head.  The 
result  was,  the  articulation  was  broken,  the  flow  was 


30  THOUGHTS    ON    PBEACHING. 

interrupted  ;  the  work  became  a  mosaic.  I  perceive 
my  father  was  right,  when  he  advised  me  to  write  my 
first  draught  currente  calamo,  without  any  plan,  with 
absolute  abandon ;  giving  free  scope  in  every  direc 
tion  whenever  a  vein  was  struck,  and  reserving  the 
particulars  for  the  copy. 

1ST.  B.  The  best  time  for  noticing  emendations  in  a 
sermon,  is  just  when  you  are  done.  They  should  be 
jotted  down,  even  if  you  have  no  time  to  rewrite. 

§  27.  Sermons. — I  sometimes  think  I  never  acted 
out  my  inner  man  in  a  sermon.  The  nearest  approach 
has  been  extempore.  Causes  which  prevent : — fear 
of  being  too  learned  ;  fear  of  being  too  sentimental ; 
fear  of  being  too  decorative ;  fear  of  being  obscure ; 
fear  of  being  too  vehement :  all  this  is  fear  of  being 
myself. 

I  reconsider  some  of  my  conclusions  about  simplic 
ity  ;  and  doubt,  more  than  doubt,  whether  a  man  may 
not  aim  at  overperspicuity.  The  thought  makes  the 
language.  High  thoughts  will  make  high  language. 

Some  men  of  study  and  research  are  called  upon 
to  preach  in  a  strain  above  the  common  level,  even 
if  some  do  not  understand  them.  There  are  enough 
who  cannot  rise  above  average  minds.  A  man's  best 
and  loftiest  meditations  should  go  out  of  him  in  the 
shape  of  sermons. 


HOHILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  31 

I  love  to  write,  yet  I  have  a  repugnance  to  write 
sermons.  Tins  arises  partly  from  constitutional  tram 
mels — skeletons — plans — traditionary  modes.  Why 
do  I  not  break  out  ?  I  read  Yinet  or  Howe,  and  feel 
"  lo  anclieson  pittore  "  ! 

§  28.  Eloquence. — In  physics  there  are  forces  which 
operate  not  mechanically,  but  dynamically ;  not  by 
the  conveyance  of  new  matter,  but  by  the  production 
of  a  new  state  or  contact.  Such  is  now  believed  to 
be  the  mode  of  producing  vision  in  the  human  organ. 

Something  analogous  to  this  occurs  in  operation 
of  mind  on  mind.  Over  and  above  the  truth  conveyed, 
I  believe  there  may  be  an  operation.  When  I  go  to 
see  a  poor  widow,  and  take  her  by  the  hand,  the 
words  which  I  speak  to  her  are  for  the  most  part  such 
as  she  has  known  before ;  and  yet  she  is  comforted. 
The  same  truths  uttered  from  the  pulpit  by  different 
men,  or  by  the  same  man  in  different  states  of  feeling, 
will  produce  very  different  effects.  Some  of  these 
are  far  beyond  what  the  bare  conviction  of  the  truth 
so  uttered  would  ordinarily  produce.  The  whole  mass 
of  truth,  by  the  sudden  passion  of  the  speaker,  is 
made  red-hot  and  burns  its  way.  Passion  is  eloquence. 
Hence  the  great  value  of  extempore  discourse. 

Demosthenes'  discourses  read  coldly  sometimes ; 
but  who  can  restore  on  paper  the  whirlwind  and 


32  THOUGHTS    ON   PKE  ACHING. 

earthquake  power  of  the  passion  with  which  they 
were  delivered !  No  man  can  be  a  great  preacher, 
without  great  feeling.  Hence  the  value  of  devotional 
preparation.  You  should  seize,  for  writing,  moments 
of  great  feeling.  Record  the  outflow  of  these,  and  you 
will  perhaps  have  some  measure  of  them  in  delivery. 

§  29.  Dividing  Sermons.  —  My  opinion  has 
changed  a  little  within  a  few  months,  about  formality 
of  Division.  I  mean  I  incline  more  to  Fenelon's 
judgment  after  having  been  very  much  the  other 
way. 

I  am  perhaps  in  more  favourable  circumstances 
for  a  judgment  than  I  was,  because  I  am  constantly 
exp  erimenting. 

The  principle  from  which  I  set  out,  is  one  which 
grows  in  my  esteem  every  day,  as  a  canon  of  compo 
sition  :  it  is  this — In  writing  or  speaking  throw  off 
all  restraint. 

Technical  Divisions  are  a  restraint.  I  am  familiar 
with  their  effect  in  trammelling  the  thoughts.  Writ 
ing  from  a  precomposed  skeleton  is  eminently  so.  It 
forces  one  to  parcel  out  his  matter  in  a  forced,  Procus- 
tean  way.  There  is  a  feeling  like  this  :  "  I  must  have 
five  pages  for  this  branch,  and  five  for  that."  The 
current  is  often  thus  stopped,  at  the  very  moment 
when  it  begins  to  gush. 


IIOMILETICAL    PAKAGRAPHS.  33 

The  ideal  of  a  discourse  is  that  of  a  flow  from  first 
to  last.  The  writing  should  begin  when  the  mind  is 
full.  If  then  a  division  suggests  itself,  it  may  be  fol 
lowed  ;  it  may  even  be  written  down  ;  but  great  care 
should  be  taken  to  prevent  the  mechanical  partition 
of  matter,  so  much  here  and  so  much  there.  Let  the 
thoughts  go  on. 

,  a  veteran  and  able  sermonizer,  has  formed  the 

habit  of  casting  every  subject  into  a  certain  mould  ; 
two  or  three  principal  heads,  followed  by  a  series 
of  reflections.  The  result  is  stiffness  and  sameness. 
I  am  not  opposed  to  the  strictest  method,  nor  to  the 
enunciation  of  it ;  but  to  the  laying  down  beforehand 
of  arbitrary  arrangement.  The  matter  to  be  arranged 
must  precede  legitimate  arrangement. 

In  a  sermon  on  Sanctification,  I  proceeded  well 
till  the  application ;  when  I  went  astray  by  making 
several  topics  of  inference,  which  divided  the  stream 
instead  of  enlarging  and  quickening  it. 

It  is  impossible  to  close  a  sermon  well,  that  is 
warmly,  unless  the  train  of  thought  has  been  so  con 
ducted  as  to  bring  the  heart  into  a  glow,  which  in 
creases  to  the  end.  Having  chosen  a  subject,  it  is 
well  to  think  it  over  deeply,  day  and  night,  and  to 
read  on  it  carefully  before  putting  pen  to  paper. 
Take  few  notes,  but  as  far  as  may  be  let  the  matter 
digest  itself  in  the  mind.  The  result  will  be  facility, 
2* 


34:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

fluency,  close  contexture,  natural  articulation  of  parts, 
vivacity,  abundance  of  material,  and  as  much  origin 
ality  as  belongs  to  the  author's  genius.  In  this  way, 
sermons  will  have  each  a  separate,  individual  physi 
ognomy,  and  sameness  will  be  avoided. 

I  do  not  see  why  a  sermon  should  not  have  all  the 
freedom  and  fulness  and  progress  of  an  oration.  Con 
sult  in  regard  to  this  Demosthenes  and  Cicero. 

O 

Though  Augustine's  sermons  are  very  faulty  as  mod 
els,  and  abound  in  the  false  point  of  his  time,  they 
have  their  excellency.  It  belongs,  moreover,  to  Fen- 
elon,  Howe,  Chalmers,  and  Foster.  Incomparable  as 
Robert  Hall  is,  in  regard  to  argument,  greatness  and 
devotion,  I  am  sensible  in  reading  him,  that  he  was 
clogged  by  the  conventional  manner  of  partition. 

Be  not  prevented  from  indulging  a  flow  which 
opens,  even  though  it  makes  the  sermon  or  any  par 
ticular  part  of  it,  too  long.  You  need  not  preach  all 
that  you  have  written  ;  and  the  matter  may  be  avail 
able  for  another  occasion.  This  applies  particularly 
to  perorations,  in  which  thoughts  often  overflow. 

In  a  pathetic  part,  never  write  invitd  Minerva. 
Never  spin  out  coldly,  or  force  the  language  of  emo 
tion.  Rather  be  content  with  a  single  sentence :  it 
way  find  enlargement  in  the  delivery. 

§  30.  Application  of  Sermons. — I  still  find  myself 


1IOM1LETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  35 

trammelled,  whenever  I  undertake  to  go  in  any  of  .the 
regular  harness  of  sermonizers.  To  be  worth  much, 
a  sermon  must  begin  like  a  river,  and  flow,  and 
widen,  and  roughen,  and  deepen,  until  the  end  ;  and 
when  it  reaches  this  end,  it  is  hurt  by  every  syllable 
that  is  added. 

Ordinary  c  Applications '  mar  the  unity  of  a  dis 
course.  They  are  often  doctrinal  corollaries ;  often 
commonplaces  ;  often  generalities,  which  equally  fit 
a  score  of  topics.  When  three  or  four  heads  of  appli 
cation  are  appended,  the  mind  is  first  drawn  one  way 
and  then  another,  and  frequently  altogether  away 
from  the  body  of  the  discourse.  Every  sermon  tends 
in  some  direction  :  let  it  take  that  direction  ;  it  is  the 
proper  ending. 

The  superstitious  reverence  for  an  application  of 
several  points,  cuts  up  this  part  of  our  sermons,  short 
enough  at  best,  and  does  not  allow  time  to  rise  upon 
the  wing,  or  to  kindle  with  a  flame. 

It  would  be  well,  if  Ave  could  grow  hotter  and  hot 
ter  without  intermission,  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  true  way  is  to  have  an  object  and  be  full  of 
it.  Grace  does  more  than  rules. 

§  31.  Fresh  Writing. — There  is  a  certain  kind  of 
writing  on  religion  which  greatly  affects  me,  but 
which  I  find  it  hard  to  describe. 


36  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

It  is  fresh,  unscholastic,  and  awakening.  It  has 
little  to  do  with  quotation  or  erudition. 

It  proceeds  from  a  mind  full  of  thought  and  of 
feeling,  and  strikes  as  original  even  while  the  subject 
is  familiar. 

Examples :  Pascal  and  Foster.  Such  an  author 
reads  the  Bible,  as  if  no  one  had  ever  read  it  before. 
It  has  a  fresh  impression.  He  meditates  deeply,  even 
on  the  smallest  particular,  and  sees  w^hat  has  escaped 
others.  He  deduces  reflections,  which  are  at  once 
natural  and  new.  Nothing  can  produce  such  writing, 
but  a  constant  and  profound  study  of  the  original  doc 
uments.  And  for  this  there  must  be  a  certain  exclu 
sion  of  other  books  and  reading. 

§  32.  Genesis  of  Thought. — Heading  Mozart's  life. 
What  wonderful  precocity  !  wonderful  genius  !  Yet 
such  a  life  seems  frivolous,  and  his  death  was  sad  ;  no 
religion.  What  most  strikes  me  is  the  spontaniety  of 
his  genius.  His  compositions  came  to  him,  unsought, 
whether  he  would  or  no.  The  parts  filled  his  mind, 
not  successively,  but  all  at  once.  Having  bestowed 
much  time  on  music,  I  see  the  wonder  of  this.  I  am 
totally  destitute  of  the  slightest  musical  conception  of 
this  kind.  I  believe,  however,  in  exactly  such  a  gen 
esis  of  thought  and  feelings.  We  are  more  passive 
than  is  thought  in  our  trains  of  thinking.  Often  have 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  37 

I  been  forced  to  say,  "  My  best  sermons  make  them 
selves."  I  fully  believe  in  this  kind  of  poetry.  It  is 
plain  that  Ovid  wrote  so  :  he  says  so  somewhere  in  a 
verse,  of  which  I  only  remember  the  last  words, 

"  Versus  erat." 

What  dependent  beings  we  are  !  How  awful  the 
thought,  that  we  may  be  sometimes  guided  by  spirit 
ual  agency  above  our  own. 

Waiting  upon  God  is  often  the  most  we  can  do. 
If  the  experiment  were  more  believingly  made,  we 
should  doubtless  have  more  results.  To  fix  attention 
is  often  all  we  can  do,  if,  indeed,  we  can  do  this. 
Look  in  a  given  direction,  and  the  train  of  thought 
will  have  a  certain  character.  Look  towards  God, 
and  the  effect  will  sometimes  be  wonderful. 

§  33.  Massillon  introduced  a  new  method  of  not 
citing  so  many  passages  verbatim  from  the  Scriptures 
and  the  fathers.  In  preparations  I  am  constantly 
violating  my  own  rules,  and  perplexing  myself  lest  I 
should  not  remember  to  use  all  the  texts  which  I  have 
looked  out ;  and  this  even  when  it  is  not  a  subject  re 
quiring  proof. 

§  34.  Preaching. — Sermons  should  be  written  on 
subjects  which  thoroughly  interest  the  mind  of  the 
writer.  Those  are  seldom  such,  which  he  takes  up 


38  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

by  a  sort  of  constraint,  in  a  series,  or  invitd  Minerva  / 
nor  those  on  which  he  is  unprepared,  and  for  which 
he  has  to  make  collection.  Sometimes,  though  rare 
ly,  it  happens,  that  during  the  process  of  collation  a 
view  is  opened,  in  which  the  mind  goes  on  con  amore. 

For  an  approximation  to  the  right  kind  of  study, 
one  must  have  a  permanent  theological  and  religious 
interest.  Something  on  these  topics  must  always  be 
uppermost.  It  must  be  the  natural  tendency  of  the 
mind  when  left  to  itself. 

Here  opens  to  our  view  a  new  value  in  the  Scrip 
tures.  He  who  constantly  reads  them  will  be  con 
stantly  awakened  to  trains  of  new  thought.  The  best 
sermons  are  so  suggested.  ~No  man  can  be  uniformly 
a  good  preacher,  who  is  not  habitually  perusing  the 
Scriptures  as  his  book  of  delights.  There  is  no  special 
preparation  for  the  pulpit  which  can  take  the  place 
of  this  general  preparation.  No  man  can  lack  sub 
jects  who  is  thus  commonly  employed. 

The  best  subject  is  commonly  that  which  comes  of 
itself.  I  never  could  understand  what  is  meant  by 
making  a  sermon  on  a  prescribed  text. 

The  right  text  is  the  one  which  comes  of  itself 
during  reading  and  meditation ;  which  accompanies 
you  in  walks,  goes  to  bed  with  you,  and  rises  with 
you.  On  such  a  text,  thoughts  swarm  and  cluster, 
like  bees  upon  a  branch.  The  sermon  ferments  for 


liOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  39 

hours  and  days,  and  at  length,  after  patient  waiting, 
and  almost  spontaneous  working,  the  subject  clarifies 
itself,  and  the  true  method  of  treatment  presents  itself 
in  a  shape  which  cannot  "be  rejected. 

Those  texts  of  Scripture  wrhich  come  up,  of  them 
selves,  or  by  the  laws  of  mental  suggestion,  are  the 
right  ones,  and  are  very  different  from  those  which 
are  sought  out.  But  observe,  in  order  that  this  should 
take  place  largely  and  fully,  and  that  the  citations 
should  be  rich  and  pertinent,  the  mind  must  have  a 
large  stock  of  Scripture  reading.  Hence  again  the 
great  value  of  close,  enlarged,  perpetual  Bible-read 
ing  ;  reading  with  delight.  There  are  various  models 
of  Scripture  quotation.  Some  search  out  the  texts 
with  a  concordance  or  similar  helps.  These  are  often 
the  greatest  quoters.  But  their  citations  are  like 
strangers  and  foreigners.  Or  they  may  be  likened  to 
stones  put  together  loosely  with  mortar.  Others 
seldom  go  beyond  a  certain  routine  of  stock  texts  ;  a 
hundred  such  writers  shall  give  you  the  same  texts 
on  a  given  topic.  They  are  so  many  dead  branches 
on  a  living  tree.  The  excerpted  verse  deadens  the 
discussion  instead  of  enlivening  it.  But  one  whose 
mind  is  full  of  a  subject,  will  have  abundance  of  pas 
sages  flowing  in,  without  opening  the  volume ;  they 
will  be  his  own,  suggested  by  peculiarities  of  his  own 
thinking ;  so  that  nothing  in  his  discourse  will  have 


40  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

more  the  air  of  originality,  than  the  familiar  passages 
of  Scripture  which  he  quotes.  The  jewel  will  shine 
with  double  lustre  from  its  setting.  The  word  fitly 
spoken  will  be  "  as  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of 
silver."  Striking  instances  may  be  found  in  Eobt. 
Hall,  and  especially  in  Jay. 

§  35.  Theological  Preaching. — Better  far  to  take 
a  theological  topic,  and  popularize  it,  than  the  reverse, 
namely,  to  take  a  hortatory  topic  and  thicken  it  by 
doctrine.  Argument  made  red-hot,  is  what  interests 
people.  Generally  speaking,  nothing  interests  so 
much  as  argument.  People  are  accustomed  to  argu 
ment,  in  such  a  country  as  ours.  Argument  admits 
of  great  vehemence  and  fire.  Argument  may  be 
made  plain.  Argument  may  be  made  ornate.  Argu 
ment  may  be  beaten  out  and  thinned  down  to  any 
degree  of  perspicuity. 

It  is  a  shame  for  a  minister  not  to  be  acquainted 
with  all  the  heads  of  theology,  all  the  great  schools 
of  opinion,  and  all  the  famous  distinctions  :  and  he 
will  not  learn  them  well,  unless  he  preaches  upon 
them. 

Theological  study  brings  along  with  it  other  impor 
tant  and  interesting  branches ;  as  doctrine,  history, 
church  history,  symbolical  history,  dogmatics,  meta 
physics,  ethics,  homiletics.  All  these  are  of  high 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  41 

value.  They  are  all  best  approached  from  the  side 
of  theology. 

Theology  is  superior,  because  it  is  the  grand  re 
sult.  That  is  greatest,  which  is  nearest  the  end. 
Exegesis  is  only  a  means  to  that  end.  Theology  in 
cludes  all  the  other  things. 

Theology,  as  inferring  close  and  logical  reasoning, 
is  suited  to  the  strength  of  middle  life.  As  age  ad 
vances,  imagination  and  memory  decay :  not  so  the 
reasoning  faculty.  It  may  be  going  on  and  increas 
ing  in  vigor  to  the  latest  day  of  life. 

The  stimulus  to  this  pursuit  will  be  best  kept  up 
if  a  man  accustom  himself  to  give  a  doctrinal  tinge  to 
all  his  preaching.  Then  he  will  read  on  these  sub 
jects.  It  is  a  great  matter  for  a  preacher  to  have  the 
habit  of  deriving  his  entertainment  day  by  day  from 
the  perusal  of  argumentative  theology.  Let  him 
continually  advance  into  new  fields,  and  attack  new 
adversaries.  Let  him  continually  revolve  the  terms 
of  former  controversies. 

§  36.  Dr.  Charming. — "  Gradual  change  of  tone 
in  Dr.  Channing's  address  ...  it  was  constantly 
becoming  less  ministerial  and  more  manly"  (Biog 
raphy.)  I  think  I  know  what  this  means — coming  out 
of  the  homiletic  tortoise-shell — not  leaving  humanity 
at  the  foot  of  the  pulpit-stairs — talking  like  other 


42  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

men — as  any  profoundly  thinking  thoroughly,  agitated 
'man  would  talk  on  a  great  subject  to  a  casual  group 
of  waiting  persons  also  deeply  interested.  Effect  of 
such  a  <T%ecrfc9  on  style,  divisions,  quotations,  &c. 

A  little  before,  the  biographer  tells  of  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's  leaving  off  much  ceremonious  dignity  in  the 
pulpit.  This,  also,  I  know.  I  am  getting  to  feel  the 
evils  of  the  academic  manner-primness,  &c. — Also 
meditate  on  the  tendency  of  clergy  to  be  much  with 
the  rich  and  the  lettered,  instead  of  being  lights  to  the 
world.  I  should  have  understood  this  less,  if  I  had 
remained  at  Princeton.  The  Democracy  must  be 
reached — people  must  be  made  to  feel  that  the  heart 
of  the  minister  is  with  them.  Common  people  re 
quire  this.  Age  requires  it.  Young  men  re 
quire  it. 

§  37.  Preaching  on  Great  Tilings. — Differing  as 
I  do  from  Channing,  and  protesting  as  I  do  against 
him,  I  can  never  cease  to  honour  and  admire  him  for 
this ;  that  he  always  wrote  and  preached  on  those 
things  which  he  considered  the  great  things.  Let  me 
explain  my  thought.  I  have  written  a  good  deal  and 
published  some  ;  it  has  been  too  much  off  at  one  side. 
I  have  not  seized  hold  of  the  main  things.  All  topics 
which  I  treat  are  regarded  by  me  more  historically 
than  philosophically ;  more  with  reference  to  books 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  43 

and  authors  than  reasons.     How  different  my  father 
— Dr.  Hodge — Yinet — and  (in  error)  Charming. 

Yet  I  am  constantly  meditating  on  the  great 
points.  Is  it  that  I  never  come  to  any  results  ?  Do 
I  prove  nothing?  Attain  nothing?  Am  I  ever 
to  be  retailing  what  this  man  says,  and  that  man 
says? 

§  38.  Theological  Sermons. — Dr.  Thorn  well  ap 
pears  to  me  to  show  some  greatness  in  devoting  his 
preaching  powers  to  the  making  of  great  theological 
sermons.  Those  who  do  this  successfully  leave  their 
mark  on  their  generation.  It  is  not  the  turn  of  the 
age  however.  The  young  ministers  who  are  coming 
out  seem  to  me  to  preach  sentimental,  rather  than 
argumentative  sermons. 

I  have  written  a  whole  sermon  to-day,  the  first  of 
two  on  1  John  iv.  18.  I  am  less  and  less  in  favour  of 
quotation  in  sermons.  My  tendency  used  to  be  very 
much  that  way.  As  my  manner  becomes  warmer, 
director,  and  more  practical,  I  let  these  brilliant 
patches  alone. 

§  39.  Be  Yourself. — In  the  making  of  sermons  I 
have  never  so  well  succeeded  as  when  I  have  for 
gotten  all  models,  and  consented  to  be  myself.  Every 
man  has  his  own  way,  in  which  he  is  better  than  in 
all  others.  Those  sermons  have  turned  out  the  best 


44  THOUGHTS   ON    PKEACHING. 

in  which  I  have  turned  the  matter  over  in  my  mind 
several  times,  and  then  written  without  predeter 
mined  skeleton. 

§  40.  Collect  Texts. — There  are  particular  times 
in  which  a  man  is  better  disposed  and  better  able 
than  at  others,  to  seek  out  texts,  and  arrange  plans  of 
sermons.  Such  moments  should  be  embraced ;  and 
if  the  result  should  be  an  accumulation  of  texts  and 
plans,  it  will  be  well ;  for  often  the  great  difficulty  is 
to  get  a  text :  as  soon  as  one  is  lighted  on,  the  matter 
goes  easily  on. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  as  useful,  to  sit  down  and 
plan  a  series  of  discourses,  not  in  any  theological 
order,  but  with  reference  to  some  given  effect  on  the 
people  ;  as  for  example,  to  promote  a  true  revival  of 
religion. 

§  41.  Free  Writing. — It  seems  to  me  that  some 
•of  the  best  writings  are  those  which  men  have  made 
for  themselves  ;  *  that  is,  without  having  other  people 
in  view  ;  without  any  end  but  to  discharge  the  mind 
of  its  thoughts.  In  this  posture  the  mind  works  most 
naturally  and  simply,  and  hence  more  strongly.  Yol- 
taire  somewhere  says  the  reverse,  for  he  thinks  the 
writer  should  always  have  both  judge  and  audience 

See  Vinet  in  his  account  of  Vannarjmes. 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  45 

in  view  ;  for  such  writing  as  Voltaire's,  this  is  doubt 
less  the  best  way.  But  there  is  always  some  inter 
ruption,  some  diversion,  arid  some  cramping  of  the 
thoughts  in  this  mode.  It  is  true,  when  a  writer 
seeks  only  this  natural  overflow  of  his  thoughts,  that 
he  is  apt  to  be  destitute  of  that  method  which  pre 
vails  in  the  schools.  The  numerical  partitions  of  dis 
course  are  sometimes  forced,  and  when  they  are  read, 
they  partake  more  of  aggregation  than  of  growth. 
There  is  as  real  an  order  in  the  evolution  of  parts  in 
a  tree  as  in  the  successive  additions  which  build  a 
house  :  and  if  a  discourse  proceeds  by  an  inward  law 
which  disregards  symmetrical  plans,  it  may  have  more 
coherence  and  vitality  than  could  be  produced  by 
rule  and  square.  The  noble  master-pieces  of  the 
ancients  possess  this  easy  flow,  which  often  defies  the 
analysis  of  the  commentator  ;  but  they  are  not  there 
fore  less  pleasing  or  less  great. 

To  write  by  a  plan,  is  in  some  degree  to  bind  the 
thoughts  to  a  given  track.  He  is  most  likely  to 
arrive  at  what  is  original  and  new  who  like  the  river 
"  wanders  at  his  own  sweet  will." 

It  is  constraining  and  so  injurious  to  thought, 
where  one  has  some  end  constantly  before  him  other 
than  the  prosecution  of  the  trains  on  which  he  has 
entered.  These  ends  may  be  various  and  some  of 
them  may  be  very  good ;  they  may  even  be  neces- 


46  THOUGHTS   ON   PEEACHING. 

sary :  but  so  far  as  the  full  and  independent  unfolding 
of  the  mind  is  concerned,  they  are  injurious.  The 
writer  may  seek  the  entertainment  or  profit  of  a 
particular  class  of  readers.  He  may  seek  fame  or 
emolument,  or  the  elevation  of  sect  or  party.  He 
may  write  as  an  exercise  for  proof  of  his  powers  or  to 
strengthen  them.  So  doing  he  may  produce  much 
that  is  excellent ;  but  he  does  this  in  a  less  degree  than 
when  he  gives  full  scope  to  the  inward  prompting. 
Hence  the  ill  effect  of  writing  for  the  public  only ; 
never  encouraging  those  expatiating  processes  which 
take  no  note  of  readers  and  critics.  Free  writings  of 
the  kind  just  mentioned,  are  after  all  those  which 
most  interest  the  reader,  and  produce  least  weariness, 
even  where  the  subject  is  a  trifling  one,  as  is  exem 
plified  by  Montaigne.  On  higher  subjects  the  same 
holds  true,  as  in  the  case  of  Pascal's  Thoughts.  ' 

A  singular  elevation  is  given  to  writings  which 
are  devotional  in  such  a  sense  as  to  be  addressed  to 
God.  Such  are  the  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine. 
There  are  also  discourses,  which  in  form  are  addressed 
to  an  audience,  but  which  nevertheless  have  this 
character  of  meditational  flow  ;  such  as  the  writings 
of  Leighton  and  Scougal.  The  inspired  books  of 
the  sacred  canon,  though  they  cannot  properly  be 
brought  into  comparison,  have  this  quality  of  uncon 
strained  flow  and  ample  digression,  which  makes  it 


HOMILETICAL    PAKAGKAPHS.  47 

hard  to  parcel  them  into  regular  divisions.  This 
is  true  equally  of  the  Psalms,  the  Prophecies,  and 
the  Epistles. 

§  42.  The  pulpit  is  too  sacred  to  be  turned  into  a 
place  for  exchanging  clerical  civilities,  or  into  a  space 
for  ceremonious  etiquette. 

§  43.  Study  of  the  Scripture. — Constant  perusal 
and  re-perusal  of  Scripture  is  the  great  preparation  for 
preaching.  You  get  good  even  when  you  know  it 
not.  This  is  one  of  the  most  observable  differences 
between  old  and  young  theologians. 

"  Give  attendance  to  reading." 

§  44.  Preaching  on  Politics. — A  minister  may  well 
be  absolved  from  preaching,  or  even  forming  opinions 
on  politics.  He  has  the  common  right  of  all  citizens 
so  to  do  ;  but  his  proper  work  is  enough  for  all  his 
time  and  powers.  The  great  themes  of  religious  truth 
are  enough  to  occupy  more  time  than  he  can  get. 
Statesmanship  is  a  science  by  itself.  If  a  preacher 
excels  in  it,  he  must  do  so  by  sacrificing  some  of  his 
sacred  hours. 

§  45.  Excess  of  Planner. — Every  excess  of  man 
ner  over  matter  hinders  the  effect  of  delivery,  on  all 
wise  judges.  Where  there  is  more  voice,  more  em- 


4:8  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

phasis,  or  more  gesture,  than  there  is  feeling,  there  is 
waste,  and  worse  ;  powder  beyond  the  shot. 

§  46.  Feeling. — Feeling  is  the  prime  mover  in 
eloquence  ;  but  feeling  cannot  be  produced  to  order  ; 
and  the  affectation  of  it,  however  elegant,  is  powerless. 

§  47.  Animation. — Every  man  may  be  said  to 
have  his  quantum  of  animation,  beyond  which  he 
cannot  go  without  forcework  and  affectation .  Hence, 
to  exhort  a  young  man  to  be  more  animated,  is  to 
mislead  and  perhaps  spoil  him,  unless  you  mean  to 
inculcate  the  cultivation  of  inward  emotion.  It  is 
better  therefore  to  let  nature  work,  even  though  for 
the  time  the  delivery  is  tame,  than  to  generate  a 
manner  only  rhetorically  and  artificially  warm,  which 
is  hypocrisy. 

§  48.  Uttering  a  chain  of  reasoning  with  the  mock 
tones  of  passion,  is  the  crying  sin  of  second-rate 
Southern  orators.  The  true  orators  of  the  South  are 
really  eloquent,  from  natural  inward  heat. 

§  49.  Reading  good  authors  aloud,  after  full  mas 
tery  of  the  sense  by  careful  study,  is  a  better  ex 
ercise  than  declaiming  one's  own  compositions  from 
memory. 

§  50.  No  good  preacher  was  ever  made  such  by 
exercise  in  oratory. 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  49 

§  51.  Eloquence,  as  a  ministerial  accomplishment, 
may  be  overrated.  Only  one  man  in  a  million  can  be 
eloquent.  Now  it  is  evident,  Christ  could  not  have 
intended  that  a  work  so  universal  should  be  depend 
ent  on  a  means  so  rare. 

§  52.  Some  of  the  greatest  effects  have  been  pro 
duced  by  men  who  had  no  external  graces  of  style  and 
elocution. 

§  53.  There  is  a  certain  type  of  thought,  diction, 
and  delivery,  which  is  proper  to  each  individual ;  and 
he  accomplishes  most  who  hits  on  this.  But  all 
straining,  all  artifice,  and  all  imitation,  tend  to  pre 
vent  the  attainment  of  this  manner. 

§  54.  The  "  utterance  "  which  the  Apostle  Paul 
craved,  and  which  is  often  mentioned  in  the  New 
Testament,  is  very  different  from  wToiidly  eloquence, 
being  a  spiritual  gift. 

§  55.  The  attraction  of  the  modern  pulpit  is  some 
thing  altogether  different  from  any  spiritual  quality. 
It  indicates  a  sickly  mind  in  the  Christian  public. 
Under  such  preaching  a  morbid  state  is  produced. 

§  56.  If  Apostolical   preaching   could  reappear, 
while  it  would  be  mighty  in  its  effects  upon  the  as 
sembly  and  on  multitudes,  it  would  probably  answer 
110  demands  of  the  schools  or  the  stage ;  but  would 
3 


50  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

be  unartificial,   expository,   simple,   paternal,   brief, 
natural,  varied,  gushing,  and  eminently  spiritual. 

§  57.  The  day  was  when  churches  were  much 
more  concerned  than  we,  about  the  truths  conveyed, 
and  much  less  about  the  garb  of  the  truths. 

Doctrine,  rather  than  speaking,  was  what  drew 
the  audience. 

§  58.  Let  every  preacher  despair  of  delivering 
that  discourse  with  true,  natural,  and  effective  warmth, 
which  he  has  prepared  with  leisurely  coldness. 

§  59.  'No  rhetorical  appliance  can  make  a  cold 
passage  truly  warm.  If,  for  any  cause,  an  inanimate 
sermon  must  needs  be  altered,  it  ought  to  be  deliv 
ered  with  no  more  emotion,  than  its  contents  engen 
der  in  the  speaker's  soul.  Every  thing  beyond  this 
is  pretence ;  and  here  is  the  source  of  all  mock-pas 
sion,  which  is  the  fixed  habit  of  many  speakers. 

§  60.  There  can  be  no  high  eloquence  without  in 
ward  feeling,  naturally  expressed.  Hence  he  who 
begins  his  discourse  on  an  ordinary  topic,  with  the 
elevated  voice  and  manner  of  great  emotion,  con 
vinces  every  just  critic  that  he  is  acting  a  part. 

§  61.  A.  Thought  for  Expansion. — Occupy  your 
mind,  since  life  is  so  short,  on  the  following,  viz. : 


HOMILETICAL    PAKAGBAPIIS.  51 

1.  True  rather  than  False. — Truth,  always  good 
• — food — safe — consistent — propagative. 

Falsehood,  even  when  conversed  with  for  good 
ends,  is  perturbing,  paining,  defiling,  misleading,  and 
wasteful  of  time. 

2.  Positive  rather  than  Negative. — Not  negation 
— not  refutation — not  mere  defence. 

3.  Great  rather  than  Small. — Great  truths — great 
subjects — the  most  important — comprehensive  of  the 
lesser — elevating — discipline  the  understanding — not 
minutiae — not  trifles. 

4.  Divine  rather  than  Human. — "Revealed,  not 
found  out — inspired — the  Bible  above  all. 

He  that  should  observe  these  rules  for  the  con 
duct  of  his  understanding,  wrould  save  much  time  and 

escape  many  troubles. 

• 

§  62.  I  find  it  hard  to  mingle  doctrine  and  prac 
tice  in  due  proportion  in  my  preaching.  Latterly  I 
fear  there  has  been  too  much  exclusion  of  doctrinal 
discussion.  The  following  hints  will  not  be  out  of 
place : 

1.  To  open  some  point  of  doctrine,  or  some  por 
tion  of  Scripture  needing  explanation,  at  least  in  one 
discourse  of  each  w^eek. 

2.  To   select   for   this   purpose,   very  frequently, 
those  doctrines  winch  are  most  vital ;   those  which 


52  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

concern  the  salvation  of  the  soul ;  those  about  which 
an  inquirer  or  believer  would  seek  information. 

3.  To  treat  these  doctrinal  points  warmly,  with  a 
perpetual  reference  to  Christian  experience. 

§  63.  Preaching. — My  morning  sermon  was  writ 
ten  and  preached  with  more  flow  and  animation  than 
usual.  I  ascribe  this  to  my  having  meditated  some 
what  on  the  history,  and  then  written  straight  on, 
without  the  slightest  reference  to  a  logical  analysis  or 
programme,  though  I  had  actually  formed  such  a 
one.  I  am  persuaded,  that  as  much  as  a  discourse 
gains  in  method  and  articulation,  by  such  a  plan,  so 
much  it  loses  in  rapidity,  richness,  and  animation.  I 
also  found  comfort  in  my  method  of  preparing  notes 
for  an  expository  lecture,  thus  :  1.  Study  the  exe 
gesis.  2.  Write  rapid  and  pretty  full  notes  on  the 
successive  parts,  numerically,  as  so  many  observa 
tions.  It  is  not  always  necessary  to  take  them  up  in 
the  order  of  the  text. 

§  64.  The  Bible.— As  the  Bible  is  the  best  of 
books,  so  the  next  lest  is  that  which  is  most  like  it, 
that  which  teaches  the  same  thing — or  explains  the 
Bible.  Instead  of  studying  and  writing  about  Austin 
and  Luther,  do  what  Austin  and  Luther  did,  namely, 
tell  what  the  Bible  teaches.  Go  straight  to  the  Law 
and  the  Testimony,  instead  of  all  subordinates  and 
substitutes. 


IIOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  53 

§  65.  In  every  age  people  have  gone  astray,  by 
going  away  from  the  Bible.  The  statements  of  Scrip 
ture  are  positive  truths,  given  on  divine  authority, 
and  faith  is  as  necessary  as  obedience ;  for  it  is  as 
much  our  duty  to  believe  what  God  says,  as  to  do 
what  he  commands.  If  we  received  in  its  true  mean 
ing  every  proposition  in  the  Bible,  we  should  have  a 
sufficient  body  of  divine  truth.  But  this  is  far  from 
being  the  case.  Some  receive  more  and  some  less, 
but  none  receive  the  whole.  One  reason  of  this  is, 
that  we  preposterously  mingle  our  own  reasonings 
with  the  conclusions  of  revelations.  Having  accepted 
as  true  a  certain  number  of  the  plain  declarations  of 
Scripture,  we  use  those  as  so  many  premises  with 
which  to  c'onnect  trains  of  reasoning.  We  do  not 
wait  to  see  whether  the  conclusions  at  w^hich  we 
would  thus  arrive  are  not  asserted  or  denied  in  other 
plain  Scriptural  declarations.  Sometimes  we  arrive 
at  conclusions  from  positive  Scriptural  declarations. 
This  is  an  inevitable  result  of  the  weakness  of  human 
reason  ;  and  as  there  is  nothing  to  which  wre  have  a 
more  overweening  attachment  than  the  fruits  of  our 
ratiocination,  we  cling  to  these  erroneous  conclu 
sions.  In  order  to  do  this  wTith  any  show  of  reverence 
for  inspiration,  wo  find  it  hereupon  necessary  to  ex 
plain  away  those  plain  declarations  of  the  Word, 
which  are  opposed  to  our  conclusions.  Thus  our  per- 


54:  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

verse  deduction,  even  from  Bible  truths,  leads  to  cor 
rupt  interpretation  of  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  analo 
gous  to  overhasty  generalization  in  natural  philoso 
phy,  from  a  narrow  basis  of  facts  or  phenomena. 

The  practical  rule  to  be  derived  from  these  re 
marks  is,  to  go  to  the  Bible  as  a  fund,  not  so  much  of 
premises  as  of  conclusions  /  to  enlarge  as  far  as  pos 
sible  the  field  of  positive  assertions ;  to  prefer  the 
plain  sense  of  the  record  ;  to  distrust  our  own  reason 
ings  from  Scripture,  in  the  way  of  logical  inference  ; 
and  to  discuss  every  conclusion  which  wars  with  clear 
Scripture  definitions. 

Hence  also  the  importance  of  being  much  engaged 
in  the  simplest  study  of  the  "Word,  in  its  plainest 
sense ;  heaping  up  this  golden  ore  just  as  it  comes 
out  of  the  mine. 

§  66.  My  Father. — My  dear  and  honoured  father 
has  some  excellencies  as  a  writer,  which  I  did  not 
value  at  a  proper  rate  when  I  was  younger.  He  goes 
always  for  the  thought  rather  than  the  word  ;  and  is 
never  led  along  by  the  bait  of  fine  language  or  the 
course  of  figures.  I  am  led  to  think  that  a  man  must 
early  in  life  make  his  election  between  these  two  kinds 
of  writing,  and  that  I  have  fallen  into  the  inferior  one : 
though  I  am  regarded  among  my  friends  as  a  simple 
writer. 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  55 

Another  remarkable  quality  of  my  father,  is  his 
going  for  truth  and  reason,  rather  than  for  authority. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  he  has  been  one  of 
the  greatest  and  most  miscellaneous  readers  I  ever 
knew;  has  had  the  most  extensive  knowledge  of 
books,  and  the  most  wonderful  memory  of  their  con 
tents,  so  that  I  have  often  known  him  to  give  a  clear 
account  of  works  which  he  had  not  seen  for  forty 
years ;  and  yet  how  seldom  does  he  make  citation ! 
The  train  of  his  thoughts  is  all  his  own,  with  a 
thorough  digestion  in  his  own  mind,  and  reference  of 
all  things  to  their  principles.  Hence  he  is  original  in 
the  best  sense ;  which  superficial  readers  would  not 
admit,  because  his  style  had  no  salient  points,  or  over 
bold  expressions. 

I  attribute  this  in  some  degree  to  the  fact  that 
almost  every  day  of  his  life,  known  to  me,  it  was  his 
habit  to  sit  alone,  in  silence,  generally  in  the  twilight, 
or  musing  over  the  fire,  in  deep  and  seemingly  pleas 
urable  thought.  At  such  times  he  was  doubtless 
maturing  those  trains  of  reasoning,  which  he  brought 
out  in  his  discourses  ;  and  this  may  account  for  his 
extraordinary  readiness  at  almost  any  time,  to  rise  in 
extemporaneous  address. 

§  67.  Some  ministers  seem  to  be  familiar  only  with 
such  and  such  passages  and  parts  of  Scripture. 


56  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

The  Puritans  derived  much  of  their  liveliness  from 
their  minute  acquaintance  with  the  Old  Testament, 
and  their  apposite  citation  of  it.  Another  kind  of 
familiarity  with  the  Word  is  apparent  in  such  a  writer 
as  Hengstenberg.  It  amazes  me.  What  extensive 
and  at  the  same  time  profound  knowledge  of  the  ori 
ginal. 

At  times  it  is  useful  simply  to  turn  over  the  pages 
of  the  Scriptures,  touching  here  and  there,  as  a  man 
walks  among  the  rows  of  his  vineyard,  receiving  gen 
eral  impressions,  or  learning  where  to  go  again. 

§  68.  Cut  off  superfluous  studies.  Come  back 
to  the  Bible.  This  rings  in  my  ears  as  years  go  on. 
Consider  all  past  studies  as  so  much  discipline,  to  lit 
you  for  this  great  study.  Make  Scripture  the  inter 
preter  of  Scripture.  Seek  practical  wisdom,  rather 
than  learning,  and  as  tending  to  holiness  and  eternal 
happiness.  Make  the  Bible  your  book  of  prayer. 

§  69.  My  greatest  acquisitions  in  Scripture  come 
from  no  commentaries  or  expositors.  The  perusals 
of  many  former  years,  turned  over  in  the  meditations, 
left  to  brew  in  the  mind,  yield  their  ripe  results  in  new 
readings,  and  often  make  that  clear  which  was  for 
merly  dark,  and  that  fruitful  which  was  once  dry. 

§  YO.  Bible  Study. — As  Bible  study  is  the  best 
study,  so  I  find  it  the  most  delightful.  It  is  a  good 


HOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  57 

way  to  read  large  portions,  and  with  much  repetition, 
but  always  avoiding  weariness.  Having  lately  read 
over  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  in  Greek,  I  read  it 
over  this  evening  in  the  English  version.  Occasion 
ally  I  looked  out  the  Old  Testament  quotations ;  I 
compared  the  Greek,  wherever  I  had  a  suspicion  about 
the  English  ;  and  here  and  there  looked  in  a  lexicon, 
or  another  version ;  but  my  chief  view  was  to  the  scope 
and  connexion ;  and  on  this  I  found  greater  lights  than 
common.  Some  verses  held  me  long,  and  I  walked  up 
and  down  the  floor  meditating  upon  them.  I  omitted 
some  separable  parenthetic  passages,  reserving  them 
for  another  perusal.  By  this  means  I  got  an  unusual 
view  of  the  lucid  unity  of  the  book.  'No  method  of 
Scriptural  study  gives  me  so  much  satisfaction.  It 
unites  reading  with  meditation.  It  is  the  best  prepa 
ration  for  preaching.  It  scatters  a  thousand  doubts. 
It  familiarizes  the  English  text,  no  inconsiderable 
part  of  a  preacher's  furniture.  Doctrines  so  derived 
are  more  firmly  grasped,  than  when  received  from  the 
ablest  systems.  Texts  so  learnt  are  better  understood 
and  more  available,  than  such  as  are  gathered  from  a 
concordance  or  marginal  bible.  They  are  taken  into 
the  system  and  assimilated.  They  become  constitu 
tional  parts  of  one's  mind.  Even  a  human  composi 
tion,  when  valuable,  is  an  organized  whole,  united  by 
a  pervading  principle,  and  with  every  part  in  its  right 


58  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

place.  Still  more  true  is  this  of  an  inspired  composi 
tion.  Each  proposition  is  not  only  truth,  but  truth  in 
the  right  place,  and  in  sacred  connexion  with  what 
goes  before  and  follows  after.  In  this  divine  connex 
ion,  truth  is  best  learned.  And  he  who  learns  it  thus, 
has  a  knowledge  of  it  superior  to  that  of  one  who 
learns  even  the  same  propositions,  rent  asunder,  or 
forced  into  the  technical  connexion  and  arrangement 
of  a  system ;  as  far  superior,  as  the  knowledge  of  the 
human  frame  derived  from  examining  a  subject,  over 
that  which  is  acquired  by  a  tabular  view  of  all  the 
chemical  elements  which  go  to  constitute  the  vital 
fabric,  however  fully  and  accurately  they  may  be 
stated.  It  is,  therefore,  all  important  to  study  the  Bible 
in  its  due  connexion ;  and,  for  this  end,  to  read  over 
large  portions,  and  even  whole  books,  carefully  and 
repeatedly. 

§  71.  Bible  Study. — I  cannot  revert  to  this  sub 
ject  too  often.  Reading  what  I  wrote  at  the  begin 
ning  of  this  book,  has  revived  my  interest  in  it. 
Experience  shews  me  more  and  more  the  value  of 
studying  the  pure  text.  Heading  the  account  of 
the  Scottish  mission  to  Palestine  has  had  the  same 
effect.  The  mere  hearing  of  a  husband  and  wife,  de 
voting  themselves  to  the  research  of  the  Scripture, 
without  comment,  has  also  been  awakening.  Recur- 


IIOMILETTCAL    PABAGKAPHS.  59 

rence  to  my  morning  task,  of  committing  a  few  verses 
to  memory,  lias  kept  up  my  interest.  This  evening  I 
read  the  book  of  Kuth  in  Hebrew,  which  confirmed 
my  resolution.  Late  preaching  experiments  corrobo 
rate  my  opinion,  that  the  very  best  preparation  for 
extempore  discourses  is  textual  knowledge.  Luther 
says  truly,  J3onus  tcxtuariits  cst  "bonus  tlieologus. 
What  can  I  set  before  me  more  obligatory,  useful  or 
pleasant,  than  to  spend  my  life  in  making  the  blessed 
word  plain  to  others?  If  I  were  able  to  have  a 
charge,  how  entirely  might  I  give  myself  to  the  Word 
of  God,  and  prayer,  by  the  aid  and  impulse  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Twenty  years  ago,  I  had  a  great  ambi 
tion  to  be  extensively  acquainted  with  the  classics.  I 
have,  in  rather  an  irregular  way,  acquired  more  of 
that  knowledge  than  is  perhaps  common  with  our 
clergy,  but  I  can  truly  say,  I  account  it  but  stubble 
and  dross  in  comparison  with  the  Bible.  The  study 
of  the  text  is  the  thing  I  mean.  I  have  pored  over 
many  commentators,  but  life  is  too  short  for  this  cir 
cuitous  method.  If  an  hour  is  to  be  spent,  either  in 
reading  and  collating  more  of  the  text,  or  in  reading 
human  comments,  surely  the  former  is  the  way  which 
gives  more  light.  What  is  acquired  in  this  way  makes 
a  peculiar  impression,  and  is  more  truly  one's  own. 
It  also  carries  with  it  a  savour  of  divine  authority. 
Sometimes  going  slowly  over  verse  by  verse,  and  med- 


60  THOUGHTS   ON   PEEACHLSTG. 

itating  on  each — a  delightful  employment — I  learn 
more  than  by  turning  over  volumes.  Especially  is 
this  useful  as  a  preparation  for  preaching.  I  can  say 
with  dying  Salmasius,  I  wish  I  had  devoted  myself 
more  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  ! 

IS".  B.  Regular  times  are  indispensable  to  profi 
ciency  in  these  researches. 

§  72.  The  Christian,  and  above  all  the  minister,  is 
bound  to  devote  all  his  powers  to  the  glory  of  God, 
in  the  good  of  mankind. 

This  is  a  work  which  requires  great  diligence  and 
earnestness,  and  may  well  occupy  the  whole  man  all 
his  life. 

Man  may  be  called  to  labour  in  different  spheres, 
but  always  with  the  same  devotion  and  singleness  of 
purpose. 

The  studies  and  authorship  of  a  Christian  are  to 
be  directed  to  this  end. 

Science  and  literature  may  be  used  as  among  the 
greatest  in  this  work  ;  but  they  are  not  to  be  used  so 
as  to  usurp  the  time  and  heart  of  the  Christian  scholar 
as  to  make  him  distinctly  a  man  of  science  or  letters. 
The  same  remarks  apply  still  more  clearly  to  other 
pursuits,  such  as  art,  politics,  agriculture,  and  trade. 
Instances :  Swift,  Sterne,  Robertson,  Howe,  many 
English  university  scholars. 


HOMILETICAL   PARAGRAPHS.  61 

An  exception  is  to  be  made  in  favour  of  those  pur 
suits,  or  even  publications  which  are  for  recreation,  in 
intervals  of  labour.  Lord  Bacon  has  said  that  every 
man  owes  a  debt  to  his  profession.  A  clergyman's 
work  should  be  governed  by  this  rule.  It  is  seemly 
that  a  man's  pen  should  utter  the  abundance  of  his 
heart,  and  that  his  books  should  bear  the  impress  of 
that  which  is  most  in  his  thoughts. 

It  is  unseemly  for  a  minister  of  Christ  to  be 
knowm  chiefly  by  works  beyond  the  line  of  his  call 
ing,  however  valuable  in  themselves.  Especially  un 
fortunate  is  it,  when  his  strength  is  dispersed  among 
petty  learned  elegancies.  No  works  of  the  pen  are 
more  honourable  than  those  which  evince  a  profound 
interest  in  the  good  of  one's  generation,  church,  and 
country.  These  betoken  earnestness,  patriotism,  and 
a  public  spirit,  and  are  far  higher  in  the  scale  than 
even  great  treatises  on  scientific  theology.  Even 
though  from  their  nature  they  have  an  interest  that 
does  not  extend  to  coming  generations,  and  thus  do 
not  become  part  of  universal  literature,  they  are  of 
great  value ;  sometimes  in  the  very  proportion  in 
which  they  are  confined  to  time  and  place. 

§  Y3.  Any  man  is  excusable,  to  say  no  more,  for 
employing  himself  about  the  great  questions  of  the 
age  and  country. 


62  THOUGHTS   ON   PEEACHING. 

It  is  a  just  reproacli  to  any  man  to  be  indifferent  to 
that  which  concerns  the  welfare  of  his  people,  and, 
while  their  interests  are  at  stake,  to  spend  his  days  in 
delicate  trifles.  Such  was  the  fault  of  Goethe.  How 
different  the  case  of  Milton,  though  he  was  wrong  in 
many  points.  Be  earnest.  Be  up  and  doing.  Bust 
is  worse  than  work.  There  is  an  excitement  which  is 
bad,  ruinous  ;  there  is  also  an  excitement  which  is  good, 
healthful,  and  corroborative.  To  be  really  in  earnest 
is  consistent  with  great  care  of  health  and  strength. 
Husband  your  faculties,  your  acquisitions,  your  time. 
Husband  them !  Therefore  give  yourself  more  to 
great  topics,  especially  to  Christian  topics ;  national 
topics  ;  topics  that  promise  good  to  the  world.  After 
a  man  has  been  a  great  reader  for  many  years,  he 
ought  to  repose.  He  ought  to  distil  his  accumula 
tions.  He  ought  to  write  from  his  own  mind.  True, 
much  of  what  he  does  so  write  will  be  the  result  of 
his  previous  reading,  but  it  will  be  without  rehearsal  or 
quotation.  If  he  belongs  to  the  better  order  of  minds 
he  will  quote  little,  except  in  those  cases  in  which  the 
very  matter  of  the  argument  lies  in  the  very  words 
of  another.  He  will  think  for  himself.  He  will  give 
the  results  of  his  learning  rather  than  the  learning 
itself.  He  will  advise  himself  thus  : 

"  Why  should  you  be  so  careful  to  remember  what 
others  have  said  ?  Of  all  you  have  read  much  has 


HOMILETICAL    PARAGRAPHS.  63 

slipped.  "Well,  most  of  such  thoughts  are  of  no  value. 
It  were  a  pity  to  retain  all.  The  mind  acts  not  as  a 
coffer,  but  partly -as  a  sieve,  and  more  as  an  alembic. 
Your  book-knowledge,  even  if  not  increased,  wrould 
furnish  abundance  for  many  works.  Do  not  give  way 
to  the  error  of  being  afraid  of  saying  plain  and  simple 
things,  so  they  are  true,  reasonable,  and  logically 
knit.  Consider  Daniel  "Webster.  The  greatest  and 
most  useful  sayings  are  simple.  Your  thoughts  seem 
more  commonplace  to  others  than  to  yourself,  for  an 
obvious  reason. 

"  Try  every  day  to  repeat  to  yourself  some  solid 
truth,  if  possible  some  new  one.  But  true  rather  than 
novel.  Fix  the  truth  in  your  mind,  as  something 
really  attained  and  immovable.  Deduce  from  it  other 
truths,  but  with  caution.  Shun  haste  and  paradox. 
Go  to  the  highest  principles.  Be  not  so  much  con 
cerned  about  the  laws  of  thought  as  about  truths,  the 
matters  of  knowledge. 

"  Avoid  vexing,  plaguing  cogitations.  Those  are 
often  the  best  thoughts  which  have  been  wrung  out 
with  the  knit  brow.  There  is  a  spontaneity  in  think 
ing.  We  do  not  so  much  create  the  stream  as  watch 
it,  and  to  a  certain  extent  direct  it.  This  is  the  reason 
why  great  thinkers  do  not  always  draw  themselves 
out ;  rather  the  contrary.  Placid,  easy  philosophising 
brings  the  abundant  fruit.  Let  the  thread  sometimes 


64  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

drop  ;  you  will  find  it  again  and  at  the  right  moment. 
In  this  meditation  differs  from  book-learning,  which 
is  necessarily  wearing. 

"  The  Scriptures  furnish  the  best  materials  for 
thought.  They  stimulate  the  soil.  They  secure  the 
right  posture  of  mind  for  calm  judgment  and  even  for 
discovery.  They  correct  error.  They  give  positive 
conclusions.  They  promote  holy  states  which  are  fa 
vourable  to  truth.  They  prevent  trifling  reasonings, 
by  keeping  the  mind  constantly  in  the  presence  of  the 
greatest  subjects." 


LETTERS  TO  YOUNG  MINISTERS, 

LETTER  I. 

ON  DEVOTION  TO  TIIE  WOUK  OF  THE  MINISTEY. 

WHEN  I  look  back  on  the  years  which  I  have 
spent  in  the  ministry,  I  cannot  but  think  that  much 
benefit  would  have  arisen  from  such  honest  and  plain 
advices  as  most  of  my  elder  brethren  could  have  given 
me.  It  is  this  which  induces  me  to  offer  you  the 
hints  which  follow.  These  must  be  somewhat  like 
personal  confessions  ;  since  the  rules  which  I  have  to 
propose  are  derived  in  several  cases  from  my  own  de 
linquencies.  You  know  the  old  similitude.  Experi 
ence  is  like  the  stern-lights  of  a  ship,  which  cast  their 
rays  on  the  path  that  has  been  passed  over.  It  will 
be  some  little  consolation  if  others  shall  be  benefited, 
even  by  our  failures.  May  God  of  his  infinite  mercy, 
give  his  blessing  to  these  suggestions  ! 

You  have  lately  entered  on  the  work  of  the  min 
istry  :  my  solemn  advice  to  you  is,  that  you  devote 


66  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

yourself  to  it  wholly.  You  remember  the  expression, 
Ev  TOVTOIS  tcrdi :  1  Tim.  iv.  15.  The  complaint  is  be 
coming  common,  respecting  young  men  entering  the 
ministry,  in  every  part  of  the  Church,  that  many  of 
them  lack  that  devotion  to  their  work,  which  was  fre 
quently  manifested  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  It  is 
vain  to  attribute  the  alleged  change  to  any  particular 
mode  of  education.  In  this  there  has  been  no  such 
alteration  as  will  account  for  the  loss  of  zeal.  The 
cause  must  be  sought  in  something  more  widely  oper 
ative.  The  effect,  if  really  existing,  is  visible  beyond 
the  circle  of  candidates  and  probationers,  j^or  need 
we  go  further  for  an  explanation,  than  to  the  almost 
universal  declension  of  vital  piety  in  our  Churches, 
which  will  abide  under  every  form  of  training,  until 
the  Spirit  be  poured  out  from  on  high.  The  fact, 
however,  remains.  Here  and  there  are  young  minis 
ters,  visiting  among  vacancies,  and  ready  to  be  em 
ployed  in  any  promising  place,  who  are  often  well  ed 
ucated  persons,  of  good  manners,  and  irreproachable 
character  :  but  what  a  want  of  fire  !  There  can  be  no 
remedy  for  this  evil,  but  a  spiritual  one  ;  yet  it  is  of 
high  importance  that  the  young  man  should  know 
what  it  is  he  needs.  He  has  perhaps  come  lately 
from  his  studies,  in  the  solitude  of  a  country  parish, 
or  from  some  school  in  the  mountains  ;  or  from  some 
sound  but  frigid  preceptor,  who,  amidst  parochial 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  67 

cares,  lias  afforded  him  few  means  of  stimulation. 
His  thoughts  are  more  about  the  heads  of  divinity, 
the  partitions  of  a  discourse,  the  polish  of  style,  the 
newest  publications,  or  even  the  gathering  of  a  libra 
ry,  than  about  the  great,  unspeakable,  impending 
work  of  saving  souls.  He  has  no  consuming  zeal  with 
regard  to  the  conversion  of  men,  as  an  immediate 
business.  Let  us  not  be  too  severe  in  our  judgments. 
It  cannot  well  be  otherwise.  None  but  a  visionary 
would  expect  the  enthusiasm  of  the  battle  in  the  sol 
dier  who,  as  yet,  has  seen  nothing  but  the  drill.  Yet 
this  enthusiasm  there  must  be,  in  order  to  any  great 
ness  of  ministerial  character,  and  any  success ;  and 
he  is  most  likely  to  attain  it,  who  is  earliest  persuaded 
that  he  is  nothing  without  it.  It  is  encouraging  to 
observe,  that  some  of  the  most  useful  and  energetic 
preachers  are  the  very  men  whose  youthful  zeal  was 
chiefly  for  learning,  but  who,  under  providential  guid 
ance,  were  brought  at  once  into  positions  where  they 
were  called  upon  to  grapple  with  difficulties,  and  ex 
ert  all  their  strength  in  the  main  work.  Such  were 
Legh  Richmond  and  Dr.  Duncan. 

In  the  sequel,  you  will  be  fully  relieved  of  any 
apprehensions  that  I  mean  to  deter  you  from  study, 
or  even  from  elegant  literature  ;  but  this  must  be  sub 
ordinated  to  the  principal  aim  ;  its  place  must  be  sec 
ondary.  Some  who  have  been  most  successful  in 


68  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

winning  souls  liave  been  men  of  learning  ;  Augustine, 
Calvin,  Baxter,  Doddridge,  Martyn  ;  but  they  laid  all 
their  attainments  at  the  foot  of  the  cross.  As  Leigh- 
ton  said,  to  a  friend  who  admired  his  books,  "  One 
devout  thought  outweighs  them  all !  "  This  is  not 
peculiar  to  matters  of  religion.  No  man  can  reach 
the  highest  degrees  in  any  calling  or  profession,  who 
does  not  admire  and  love  it,  and  give  himself  to  it — 
have  his  mind  full  of  it,  day  by  day.  'No  great  paint 
er  ever  became  such,  who  had  it  only  as  a  collateral 
pursuit,  or  who  did  not  reckon  it  the  greatest  of  arts, 
or  who  did  not  sacrifice  every  thing  else  to  it.  Great 
commanders  have  not  risen  from  among  dilettante 
soldiers,  who  only  amused  themselves  with  the  art  of 
war.  The  young  minister,  who  is  evidently  concen 
trating  his  chief  thoughts  on  something  other  than  his 
ministry,  will  be  a  drone,  if  not  a  Demas.  Look  at 
the  books  on  his  table,  examine  his  last  ten  letters, 
listen  to  his  conversation,  survey  his  companions : 
thus  you  will  learn  what  is  uppermost  in  his  heart. 
And  if  you  find  it  to  be  poetry,  aesthetics,  classics,  lit 
erary  appointments,  snug  settlement,  European  travel, 
proximity  to  the  great ;  be  not  surprised  if  you  find 
him  ten  years  hence  philandering  at  soriees,  distilling 
verse  among  the  weaker  vessels  of  small  literature, 
operating  in  stocks,  or  growing  silent  and  wealthy 
upon  a  plantation.  It  is  a  source  of  deep  regret  to 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  69 

many  in  review  of  life,  that  they  have  scattered  them 
selves  over  too  many  fields  ;  let  me  entreat  of  you  to 
spend  your  strength  on  one.  When  we  call  up  in 
memory  the  men  wlioso  ministerial  image  is  most 
lovely,  and  whom  we  would  resemble,  they  are  such 
as  have  been  true  to  their  profession,  and  who  have 
lived  for  nothing  else.  Some  there  are,  indeed,  who 
have  had  a  clear  vocation  to  the  work  of  teaching, 
which  is  really  a  branch  of  the  ministry,  and  one  of 
its  most  indispensable  branches,  and  who  have  served 
Christ  as  faithfully  in  the  school-room  or  the  univer 
sity,  as  in  the  pulpit ;  such  were  Melancthon,  Turret- 
tine,  Witsius,  "Witherspoon,  Dwight,  Livingston,  Rice, 
and  Graham.  But  our  concern  is  with  ordinary  min 
isters,  called  to  no  other  public  station  ;  and  of  these 
it  is  unquestionable,  that  the  most  successful  are  those 
who  have  lived  in  and  for  their  spiritual  work.  Call 
to  mind  the  chief  JSTonconformists  ;  also  of  later  date, 
Newton,  Cecil,  Brown,  "Waugh,  Simeon ;  the  Ten- 
nents,  Rodgers,  McMillan,  McCheyne,  and  of  our  own 
acquaintance  the  "  greatly  beloved  "  "William  Kevins. 
In  these  men,  the  prominent  purpose  was  ministerial 
work.  If  at  any  time  they  wrote  and  published,  it 
was  on  matters  subservient  to  the  gospel.  This  ac 
counts  for  the  holy  glow  which,  even  amidst  human 
imperfections,  was  manifest  in  their  daily  conversa 
tion.  They  might  have  been  eminent  in  other  pur- 


70  THOUGHTS   OX   PEEACHING. 

suits,  but  they  had  given  themselves  to  the  work  of 
Christ. 

In  another  letter,  the  subject  may  be  more  appro 
priately  discussed,  but  I  cannot  forbear  calling  your 
attention  to  the  bearing  of  this  on  the  tone  of  preach 
ing.  "Suppose  a  man  has  been  all  the  week  with 
Goethe  and  de  Beranger,  or  with  Sue  and  Heine,  or 
even  with  the  Mathematicians  or  Zoologists,  not  to 
speak  of  prices-current,  stock  quotations,  or  tables  of 
interest ;  how  can  he  be  expected,  by  the  mere  put 
ting  on  of  a  black  gown  or  a  white  neckcloth,  and 
entering  the  pulpit,  to  be  all  on  fire  with  Divine  love  ! 
No  wonder  we  preach  so  coldly  on  the  Sabbath,  when 
we  are  so  little  moved  on  week-days,  about  what  we 
preach.  You  have  perhaps  met  two  or  three  clergy 
men  lately  ;  what  did  their  conversation  turn  upon  ? 
The  coming  glory  of  the  Church  ?  the  power  of  the 
"Word  ?  the  best  means  of  arousing  sinners  ?  even  the 
most  desirable  method  of  preparation  ?  or  some  high 
point  of  doctrine  ?  Or  were  they  upon  the  last  elec 
tion,  the  last  land  speculation,  the  last  poem,  or  the 
price  of  cotton  and  tobacco  ?  According  to  your  an 
swer,  will  be  the  conclusion  as  to  the  temperature  of 
their  preaching.  There  is  indeed  a  sort  of  pulpit  fire 
which  is  rhetorical — proceeds  from  no  warmth  within, 
and  diffuses  no  warmth  without ;  the  less  of  it  the  bet 
ter.  But  genuine  ardour  must  arise  from  the  habitual 


LETTERS    TO    TOTING   MINISTERS.  71 

thought  and  temper  of  the  life.  He  with  whom  the 
ministry  is  a  secondary  thing,  may  be  a  correct,  a 
learned,  an  elegant,  even  an  oratorical,  but  will  never 
be  a  powerful  preacher. 

You  must  allow  me  to  give  prominence  to  this  de 
votion  of  heart  to  your  work,  here  at  the  threshold, 
because  it  is  my  desire  hereafter  to  enlarge  more  on 
your  theological  studies  ;  and  I  earnestly  charge  you 
to  hold  all  studies  as  only  means  to  this  end,  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  salvation  of  souls.  The  day  is  near 
when  your  whole  ministerial  life  will  seem  to  you 
very  short  in  retrospect.  Let  our  prayer  be  that  of 
the  sweet  psalmist  of  early  Methodism  : 

"  I  would  the  precious  time  redeem, 

And  longer  live  for  this  alone, 
To  spend,  and  to  be  spent  for  them 

Who  have  not  yet  my  Saviour  known; 
Fully  on  these  my  mission  prove, 
And  only  breathe  to  breathe  thy  love. 

"  My  talents,  gifts,  and  graces,  Lord, 

Into  thy  blessed  hands  receive  ; 
And  let  me  live  to  preach  thy  word, 

And  let  me  for  thy  glory  live, 
My  every  sacred  moment  spend, 
In  publishing  the  sinner's  Friend." 

That  which  we  all  need  is  to  magnify  our  office, 
to  recognize  the  sublimity  of  our  work  There  would 


72  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

be  more  Brainerds,  and  more  "WTiitefields,  if  such 
views  were  more  common  ;  and  there  would  be  more 
instances  of  great  men  stuggling  on  for  years  in  nar 
row,  remote  situations,  but  with  mighty  effects.  The 
observation  of  good  Mr.  Adam  is  striking  and  true  : 
"  A  poor  country  parson,  fighting  against  the  devil 
in  his  parish,  has  nobler  ideas  than  Alexander  had." 
My  dear  young  friend,  if  there  is  any  thing  you  would 
rather  be  than  a  preacher  of  the  gospel ;  if  you  regard 
it  as  a  ladder  to  something  else ;  if  you  do  not  con 
sider  all  your  powers  as  too  little  for  the  work ;  be 
assured  you  have  no  right  to  hope  for  any  usefulness 
or  even  eminence.  To  declare  God's  truth  so  as  to 
save  souls,  is  a  business  which  angels  might  covet : 
acquire  the  habit  of  regarding  your  work  in  this  light. 
Such  views  will  be  a  source  of  legitimate  excitement ; 
they  will  lighten  the  severest  burdens,  and  dignify 
the  humblest  field  of  labour,  in  the  narrowest  valley 
among  the  mountains.  They  will  confer  that  myste 
rious  strength  on  your  plainest  sermons,  which  has 
sometimes  made  men  of  small  genius  and  no  eloquence 
to  be  the  instrument  of  converting  hundreds.  Think 
more  of  the  treasure  you  carry,  the  message  you  pro 
claim,  and  the  heaven  to  which  you  invite,  than  of 
your  locality,  your  supporters,  or  your  popularity.  It 
is  recorded  of  the  excellent  John  Brown,  of  Hadding- 
ton — and  I  regret  that  I  have  forgotten  his  very  words 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  73 

— that  to  a  former  pupil  who  was  complaining  of  the 
smallness  of  his  congregation,  he  said  :  "  Young  man, 
when  you  appear  at  Christ's  bar,  it  will  be  the  least 
of  your  anxieties  that  you  have  so  few  souls  to  give 
account  of."  And  the  same  good  man  said  :  "  Now, 
after  forty  years'  preaching  of  Christ,  and  his  great 
and  sweet  salvation,  I  think  I  would  rather  beg  my 
bread  all  the  labouring  days  of  the  week,  for  the  op 
portunity  of  publishing  the  gospel  on  the  Sabbath,  to 
an  assembly  of  sinful  men,  than,  without  such  a  priv 
ilege,  enjoy  the  richest  possessions  on  earth.  By  the 
gospel  do  men  live,  and  in  it  is  the  life  of  my  soul."  * 
On  this  subject  the  opinion  of  such  a  man  as  John 
Livingston  will  have  weight  with,  you  ;  for  you  know 
he  was  honoured  of  God  to  awaken  five  hundred  by 
one  sermon  at  the  Kirk  of  Shotts.  His  life  and  re 
mains,  as  published  by  the  "Wodrow  Society,  show 
that  the  secret  of  his  strength  lay  in  his  devotion  to 
the  work.  "  Earnest  faith  and  prayer,"  says  he,  "  a 
single  aim  at  the  glory  of  God,  and  good  of  people, 
a  sanctified  heart  and  carriage,  shall  avail  much  for 
right  preaching.  There  is  sometimes  somewThat  in 
preaching  that  cannot  be  ascribed  either  to  the  matter 
or  expression,  and  cannot  be  described  what  it  is,  or 
from  whence  it  cometh,  but  with  a  sweet  violence,  it 
pierceth  into  the  heart  and  affections,  and  comes  im- 

*  See  Waugh's  Life,  p.  53 
4 


74  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

mediately  from  the  Lord.  But  if  there  be  any  way  to 
attaine  to  any  such  thing,  it  is  by  a  heavenly  dispo 
sition  of  the  speaker."  *  And  again  :  "  I  never 
preached  ane  sermon  which  I  would  be  earnest  to  see 
again  in  wryte  but  two  ;  the  one  was  on  ane  Munday 
after  the  communion  at  Shotis,  and  the  other  on  ane 
Munday  after  the  communion  at  Holy  wood  ;  and 
both  these  times  I  had  spent  the  whole  night  before 
in  conference  and  prayer  with  some  Christians,  with 
out  any  more  than  ordinary  preparation  ;  otherwayes, 
my  gift  was  rather  suited  to  simple  common  people, 
than  to  learned  and  judicious  auditors."  f 

Here  you  have  indicated  the  true  source  of  pulpit 
strength.  It  is  closely  connected  with  the  subject  of 
this  letter  ;  for  the  more  you  are  swallowed  up  in  the 
vastness  of  your  work,  the  more  will  you  be  cultivat 
ing  spiritual-mindedness.  You  will  agree  at  once, 
that  it  is  a  sign  we  are  taking  the  right  view  of  our 
vocation,  when  the  means  which  wre  employ  for  our 
personal  growth  in  grace  are  the  same  which  most 
conduce  to  the  power  of  our  ministry.  Such  an  esti 
mate  of  our  work  as  is  here  recommended,  can  be 
maintained  only  by  a  constant  contemplation  of  the 
great  end  of  all  our  preaching  and  pastoral  labour — 
namely,  the  glory  of  Christ,  the  building  up  of  his 

*  Sel.  Biogr.  Wodr.  Coll.  p.  287,  &c. 
t  Ibid.  1M. 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  75 

kingdom,  and  the  salvation  of  souls.  This  should  be 
always  in  your  mind.  "When  you  go  to  bed,  and  when 
you  are  awake,  it  should  be  as  a  minister  of  Christ ; 
not,  surely,  in  the  way  of  professional  assumption,  but 
with  a  profound  sense  of  your  dedication  to  a  momen 
tous  work,  for  which  one  lifetime  seems  too  short. 
There  are  legitimate  occasions,  on  which  a  minister 
may  deliberately  and  thoroughly  relax  himself,  by 
entertaining  books,  music,  company,  travel,  or  even 
athletic  sports,  to  an  extent  far  more  than  is  common 
among  sedentary  men  :  and  I  hope  you  will  despise 
the  canting  and  sanctimonious  proscriptions  of  those 
who  would  debar  clergymen  from  any  summer  repose, 
or  resorts  to  the  springs  or  seaside.  Nevertheless,  in 
the  ordinary  ministerial  day,  there  should  be  no  hour 
not  devoted  to  something  helpful  towards  the  great 
work.  This  should  give  direction  to  all  your  read 
ing,  writing,  and  conversation.  The  volume  which 
you  have  in  your  hand  should  be  there  for  some  good 
reason,  connected  with  your  ministry.  It  will  appear 
hereafter,  that  the  territory  from  which  ministerial 
auxiliaries  are  to  be  levied,  is  exceedingly  wide,  and 
embraces  all  that  can  strengthen,  clear,  beautify,  and 
relax  the  mind  ;  but  the  animus  of  all  this  must  be  a 
single  eye  towards  the  finishing  your  course  with  joy, 
and  the  ministry  which  you  have  received  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  Acts  xx.  21.  Holding  it  to  be  a  disgrace  to 


76  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

a  young  clergyman  not  to  be  familiar  with  the  Greek 
Testament,  I  add,  Trjv  SICLKOVLCIV  aov  irKypofyopTja-ov. 
Each  instant  of  present  labour  is  to  be  graciously  re 
paid  with  a  million  ages  of  glory. 


LETTER  II. 

THE   CULTIVATION  OF   PERSONAL  PIETY. 

IT  is  scarcely  possible  to  treat  of  some  subjects 
without  running  into  commonplaces  :  their  very  im 
portance  has  made  them  trite,  just  as  we  observe 
great  highways  to  be  most  beaten.  The  question  has 
been  much  discussed,  whether  a  minister  should  ever 
preach  beyond  his  own  experience.  In  one  sense, 
unquestionably,  he  should.  lie  is  commissioned  to 
preach,  not  himself,  or  his  experience,  but  Christ  Je 
sus,  the  Lord,  and  his  salvation ;  he  is  a  messenger, 
and  his  message  is  laid  before  him  in  the  Scriptures  ; 
it  is  at  his  peril,  that  he  suppresses  aught,  whether 
he  has  experienced  it  or  not.  He  is,  for  example, 
not  to  withhold  consolation  to  God's  deeply  afflicted 
ones,  till  he  has  experienced  deep  affliction  himself. 
Yet  every  preacher  of  the  gospel  should  earnestly 
strive  to  attain  the  experience  of  the  truths  which  he 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  77 

communicates,  and  to  have  every  doctrine  which,  he 
utters  turned  into  vital  exercises  of  his  heart ;  so  that 
when  he  stands  up  to  speak  in  the  name  of  God,  there 
may  be  that  indescribable  freshness  and  penetrative- 
ness,  which  arise  from  individual  and  present  interest 
in  what  is  declared. 

In  every  Church  there  are  some  aged  and  experi 
enced  Christians.  These  are  specially  regarded  by 
the  Master,  and  require  to  be  fed  with  the  finest  of 
the  wheat.  The  ministry  is  appointed  with  much 
reference  to  such  ;  and  they  know  when  their  portion 
is  withheld.  They  may  be  poor  and  unlettered,  and 
incompetent  to  judge  of  gesture,  diction,  or  even 
grammar  ;  but  they  know  the  "  language  of  Canaan," 
and  the  "  speech  of  Ashdod  :  "  I  hold  them  to  be  the 
best  judges  of  the  ministry.  How  little  does  the 
starched  and  elegant,  but  shallow  young  divine  sus 
pect,  that  in  yonder  dark,  back  pew,  or  in  the  out 
skirts  of  the  gallery,  there  sits  an  ancient  widow,  who 
was  in  Christ  before  he  was  born,  and  who  reads  him 
through  and  through.  Mr.  Summerfield  once  related 
to  me,  that  Dr.  Doddridge,  when  other  more  learned 
helps  failed,  used  to  consult  a  poor  old  woman,  living 
near  him,  upon  hard  passages  in  his  commentary,  and 
that  he  generally  acquiesced  in  her  conclusions. 
There  is  no  teacher  like  the  Paraclete  ;  and  the  prom 
ise  is,"  All  thy  children  shall  be  taught  of  the  Lord." 


78  THOUGHTS    ON   PEE  ACHING. 

Isaiah  liv.  13.  To  be  able  to  feed  such  sheep  of  Christ, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  the  young  minister  should  seek 
to  attain  high  degrees  of  piety. 

The  truth  is,  such  are  the  discouragements  of 
genuine  cross-bearing  ministry,  and  so  repugnant  to 
the  flesh  are  many  of  its  duties,  that  nothing  but  true 
piety  will  hold  a  man  up  under  the  burden  ;  he  will 
sooner  or  later  throw  it  off,  and  begin  to  seek  his 
ease,  or  preach  for  "  itching  ears,"  or  phonographic 
reporters.  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  go  through  a  routine, 
to  "  do  duty,"  as  the  phrase  of  the  Anglican  estab 
lishment  is ;  but  it  is  hard  to  the  flesh,  to  denounce 
error  in  high  places,  to  preach  unpopular  doctrine,  to 
labour  week  after  week  in  assemblies  of  a  dozen  or 
twenty,  to  spend  weary  hours  among  the  diseased 
and  dying,  and  to  watch  over  the  discipline  of  Christ's 
house.  Nothing  but  an  inward  enjoyment  of  divine 
truth,  and  a  reference  to  the  final  award,  will  stimu 
late  a  man  to  constancy  in  such  labours. 

You  will  be  called,  as  a  minister,  to  spend  much 
time  in  laborious  study,  the  tendency  of  which  is  to 
draw  the  mind  off  from  spiritual  concerns  ;  and  some 
times  in  the  perusal  of  erroneous,  heretical,  and  even 
infidel  works,  that  you  may  know  what  it  is  you  have 
to  combat.  Your  condition  in  this  is  like  that  of  the 
physician,  who  ventures  into  infection,  and  makes 
trial  of  poisons.  You  will  need  much  grace  to  pre- 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  79 

serve  your  spiritual  health  in  such  perils.  The  free 
dom  with  which  you  must  mingle  in  society  will  ex 
pose  you  to  many  of  the  common  temptations  of  a 
wicked  world ;  and  it  will  require  the  extreme  of 
reserve,  caution,  and  mortification,  on  your  part,  to 
prevent  your  falling  into  the  snare.  In  the  present 
day,  out  of  opposition  to  the  ascetic  life,  we  all  proba 
bly  act  too  much  as  if  we  were  "  children  of  the  bride- 
chamber,"  and  too  much  neglect  the  subjugation  of 
the  body.  That  a  man  is  a  minister  is  no  token  that 
he  shall  not  be  cast  into  hell-fire.  The  instances  of 
apostasy  within  our  own  knowledge  stare  at  us,  like 
the  skeletons  of  lost  travellers,  among  the  sands  of  our 
desert-way.  ~No  temptation  hath  befallen  them  but 
that  which  is  common  to  man.  The  apparitions  of 
clerical  drunkards,  and  the  like,  should  forewarn  us. 
"Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he 
fall !  The  apostle  Paul  expresses  his  view  of  this,  in 
terms  of  which  the  force  cannot  be  fully  brought  out 
by  any  translation  :  "  But  I  keep  under  my  body," 
vTrcoTTidla).  I  strike  under  the  eye,  so  as  to  make  it 
black  and  blue,  a  boxing  phrase,  indicative  of  strenu 
ous  efforts  at  mortification ;  as  who  should  say,  "  I 
subdue  the  flesh  by  violent  and  reiterated  blows,  and 
bring  it  into  subjection,"  SovXaycoya) ;  "  I  lead  it  along 
as  a  slave ;"  having  subjugated  it  by  assault  and  beat 
ing,  I  treat  it  as  a  bondman,  as  boxers  in  the  Palaestra 


80  THOUGHTS    OJST    PREACHING. 

used  to  drag  off  their  conquered  opponents.  And 
the  reason  for  this  mortification  of  the  flesh  is,  "  lest 
that  by  any  means,  when  I  have  preached  to  others, 
I  myself  should  be  a  castaway."  1  Cor.  ix.  27. 
Dreadful  words !  but  needed,  to  deter  us  from  more 
•dreadful  destruction.  The  tophet  of  apostate  minis 
ters  must  be  doubly  severe.  It  is  the  "  deceitfulness 
of  sin  "  which  hardens  so  many  of  us  into  carelessness 
about  so  great  a  danger.  Pride  goeth  before  destruc 
tion,  till  suddenly,  like  Saul,  the  careless  minister 
finds  himself  inveigled  into  some  great  sin.  This 
may  never  be  known  to  the  world,  yet  it  may  lead  to 
his  ruin.  "  I  am  persuaded,"  says  Owen,  "  there  are 
very  few  that  apostatize  from  a  profession  of  any  con 
tinuance,  such  as  our  days  abound  with,  but  their 
door  of  entrance  into  the  folly  of  backsliding  was 
either  some  great  and  notorious  sin,  that  blooded  their 
consciences,  tainted  their  affections,  and  intercepted 
all  delight  of  having  anything  more  to  do  with  God  ; 
or  else  it  was  a  course  of  neglect  in  private  duties, 
arising  from  a  weariness  of  contending  against  that 
powerful  aversation  which  they  found  in  themselves 
unto  them.  And  this  also,  through  the  craft  of  Satan, 
hath  been  improved  into  many  foolish  and  sensual 
opinions  of  living  unto  God  without  and  above  any 
duties  of  communion.  And  we  find  that  after  men 
have,  for  a  while,  choked  and  blinded  their  con- 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  81 

sciences  with,  tins  pretence,  cursed  wickedness  or  sen 
suality  hath  been  the  end  of  their  folly." 

Of  all  people  on  earth,  ministers  most  need  the 
constant  impressions  derived  from  closet  piety.  If 
once  they  listen  to  the  flattering  voice  of  their  ad 
mirers,  and  think  they  are  actually  holy  because 
others  treat  them  as  such  ;  if  they  dream  of  going  to 
heaven  ex  officio  /  if,  weary  of  public  exercises,  they 
neglect  those  which  are  private ;  or  if  they  acquire 
the  destructive  habit  of  preaching  and  praying  about 
Christ  without  any  faith  or  emotion ;  then  their 
course  is  likely  to  be  downward.  Far  short,  however, 
a  minister  of  Christ  may  be  of  so  dreadful  doom,  and 
yet  be  almost  useless.  To  prevent  such  declension, 
the  best  advice  I  know  of,  is  to  be  much  in  secret  de 
votion  ;  including  in  this  term  the  reflective  reading 
of  Scripture,  meditation,  self-examination,  prayer, 
and  praise.  And  here  you  must  not  expect  from  me 
any  recipe  for  the  conduct  of  such  exercises,  or  rules 
for  the  times,  length,  posture,  place,  and  so  forth  ;  for 
I  rejoice  in  it  as  the  glory  of  the  Church  to  which  we 
both  belong,  that  it  is  so  little  rubrical.  How  often 
you  shall  fast  or  sing  or  pray,  must  be  left  to  be 
settled  between  God  and  your  conscience ;  only  fix 
in  mind  and  heart  the  necessity  of  much  devotion. 

It  is  good,  sometimes,  to  recall  the  examples  of 
eminent  preachers.     John  Welsh,  the  famous  son-in- 
4* 


82  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

law  of  Knox,  was,  during  his  exile,  minister  of  a 
village  in  France.  A  friar  once  lodged  under  his 
roof,  and  on  being  asked  how  he  had  been  entertained 
by  the  Huguenot  preacher,  replied,  "  111  enough  ;  for 
I  always  held  there  were  devils  haunting  these  minis 
ters'  houses,  and  I  am  persuaded  there  was  one  with 
me  this  night ;  for  I  heard  a  continual  whisper  all 
the  night  over,  which  I  believe  was  no  other  than  the 
minister  and  the  devil  conversing  together."  The 
truth  was,  it  was  the  Huguenot  preacher  at  prayer. 
Welsh  used  to  say,  "  he  wondered  how  a  Christian 
could  lie  in  bed  all  night,  and  not  rise  to  pray  ;  and 
many  times  he  prayed,  and  many  times  he  watched." 
Such  cases  are  not  altogether  wanting  in  our  own 
days :  'Mr.  Simeon,  of  Cambridge,  in  more  than  one 
instance  is  known  to  have  spent  the  whole  night  in 
prayer.  Let  me  seriously  commend  to  your  notice  a 
paper  contained  in  his  Life  by  Mr.  Carus,  page  303, 
entitled,  Circumstances  of  my  Inward  Experience. 
Almost  every  word  of  it  is  golden,  and  among  other 
passages  you  will  note  the  following  :  "  I  have  never 
thought  that  the  circumstance  of  God's  having  for 
given  me,  was  any  reason  why  I  should  forgive  my 
self ;  on  the  contrary,  I  have  always  judged  it  better 
to  loathe  myself  the  more,  in  proportion  as  I  was  as 
sured  that  God  was  pacified  towards  me.  Ezek.  xvi. 
63.  Nor  have  I  been  satisfied  with  viewing  my  sins, 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  83 

as  men  view  the  stars  in  a  cloudy  night,  one  here  and 
another  there,  with  great  intervals  between ;  but 
have  endeavoured  to  get  and  to  preserve  continually 
before  my  eyes,  such  a  view  of  them  as  we  have  of 
the  stars  in  the  brightest  night ;  the  greater  and  the 
smaller  all  intermingled,  and  forming  as  it  were  one 
continual  mass ;  nor  yet,  as  committed  a  long  time 
ago,  and  in  many  successive  years ;  but  as  all  form 
ing  an  aggregate  of  guilt,  and  needing  the  same 
measure  of  humiliation  daily,  as  they  needed  at  the 
very  moment  they  were  committed.  Nor  would  I 
willingly  rest  with  such  a  view  as  presents  itself  to 
the  naked  eye ;  I  have  desired  and  do  desire  daily, 
that  God  would  put  (so  to  speak)  a  telescope  to  my 
eye,  and  enable  me  to  see,  not  a  thousand  only,  but 
millions  of  my  sins,  which  are  more  numerous  than 
all  the  stars  which  God  himself  beholds,  and  more 
than  the  sands  upon  the  sea-shore.  There  are  but  two 
objects  that  I  have  ever  desired  for  these  forty  years 
to  behold  ;  the  one  is  my  own  vileness,  and  the  other 
is  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
I  have  always  thought  that  they  should  be  viewed  to 
gether  ;  just  as  Aaron  confessed  all  the  sins  of  all 
Israel  whilst  he  put  them  upon  the  head  of  the  scape 
goat."  Such  exercises  as  these,  you  will  admit,  may 
well  give  occasion  for  more  than  usual  persistency  in 
prayer. 


84-  THOUGHTS    ON    PEEACIIING. 

But  lest  you  think  only  of  sorrowing  exercises,  let 
me  recall  a  passage  which  Flavel  gives  concerning 
one  whom  he  modestly  calls  "  a  minister,"  bnt  who  is 
well  understood  to  have  been  himself ;  offering  it  not 
so  much  for  imitation,  as  to  show  how  deep  were  the 
experiences  of  one  who  was  busied  in  various  learn 
ing,  and  in  all  the  scholastic  argumentation  of  his  day. 
He  was  alone  on  a  journey,  and  determined  to  spend 
the  day  in  self-examination.  After  some  less  material 
circumstances,  he  proceeds  thus  :  "In  all  that  day's 
journey,  he  neither  met,  overtook,  or  was  overtaken 
by  any.  Thus  going  on  his  way,  his  thoughts  began 
to  swell  and  rise  higher  and  higher,  like  the  waters 
in  EzekiePs  vision,  till  at  last  they  became  an  over 
flowing  flood.  Such  was  the  intention  of  his  mind, 
such  the  ravishing  tastes  of  heavenly  joys,  and  such 
the  full  assurance  of  his  interest  therein,  that  he 
utterly  lost  the  sight  and  sense  of  this  world  and  all 
the  concerns  thereof;  and  for  some  hours  knew  no 
more  where  he  was,  than  if  he  had  been  in  a  deep 
sleep  upon  his  bed."  Arriving,  in  great  exhaus 
tion,  at  a  certain  spring,  "  he  sat  down  and  washed, 
earnestly  desiring,  if  it  were  the  pleasure  of  God,  that 
it  might  be  his  parting-place  from  this  world.  Death 
had  the  most  amiable  face,  in  his  eye,  that  ever 
he  beheld,  except  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  which 
made  it  so  ;  and  he  does  not  remember  (though  he 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  85 

believed  himself  dying,)  that  he  had  once  thought  of 
his  dear  wife  or  children,  or  any  other  earthly  con 
cernment."  On  reaching  his  inn,  the  same  frame  of 
spirit  continued  all  night,  so  that  sleep  departed  from 
him.  "  Still,  still,  the  joy  of  the  Lord  overflowed 
him,  and  he  seemed  to  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  other 
world.  But  within  a  few  hours,  he  was  sensible  of 
the  ebbing  of  the  tide,  and  before  night,  though  there 
was  a  heavenly  serenity  and  sweet  peace  upon  his 
spirit,  which  continued  long  with  him,  yet  the  trans 
ports  of  joy  were  over,  and  the  fine  edge  of  his  de 
light  blunted.  He  many  years  after  called  that  day 
one  of  the  days  of  heaven,  and  professed  he  under 
stood  more  of  the  life  of  heaven  by  it,  than  by  all  the 
books  he  ever  read,  or  discourses  he  ever  entertained 
about  it."  * 

Even  if  you  should  be  disposed  to  treat  this  as 
one  of  the  anomalies  of  religious  experience,  you  will 
nevertheless  do  well  to  remark  that  the  subject  of 
these  exercises  is  John  Flavel,  a  man  remote  from 
enthusiasm,  and  whose  extensive  writings  are  charac 
terized  by  regular  argument  and  sound  theology  ;  and 
also  that  this  very  narrative  was  thought  worthy  of 
republication  by  the  cool-headed  Jonathan  Edwards. 
The  mention  of  which  name  reminds  me  of  an  in 
stance  given  by  him,  of  high  religious  joy,  which  has 

*  Flavel's  Works,  fol.  ed.  vol.  i.  p.  501. 


86  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEA.CHING. 

since  his  death  been  ascertained  to  be  that  of  his  own 
wife.*  The  narrative  is  long,  but  is  worthy  of  your 
perusal.  Among  other  traits  were  these  :  the  great 
est,  fullest,  longest  continued,  and  most  constant  as 
surance  of  the  favour  of  God,  and  of  a  title  to  future 
glory  ;  to  use  her  own  expression,  "  the  riches  of  full 
assurance ; "  the  sweetness  of  the  liberty  of  having 
wholly  left  the  world  and  renounced  all  for  God,  and 
having  nothing  but  God,  in  whom  is  infinite  fulness. 
This  was  attended  with  a  constant  sweet  peace,  and 
calm  and  serenity  of  soul,  without  any  cloud  to  inter 
rupt  it ;  a  continual  rejoicing  in  all  the  works  of 
God's  hands,  the  works  of  nature,  and  God's  daily 
works  of  providence,  all  appearing  with  a  sweet  smile 
upon  them  ;  a  wonderful  access  to  God  by  prayer,  as 
it  were  seeing  him,  and  sensibly,  immediately  con 
versing  with  him,  as  much  oftentimes  (she  said)  as  if 
Christ  were  here  on  earth  sitting  on  a  visible  throne, 
to  be  approached  to  and  conversed  with.  All  former 
troubles  were  forgotten,  and  all  sorrow  and  sighing 
fled  away,  excepting  grief  for  past  sins  and  for  re 
maining  corruption,  and  that  Christ  is  loved  no  more, 
and  that  God  is  no  more  honoured  in  the  world  ;  and 
a  compassionate  grief  towards  fellow-creatures ;  a 
daily  sensible  doing  and  suffering  every  thing  for 
God,  and  bearing  trouble  for  God,  and  doing  all  as 

*  Edwards's  Works,  vol.  iii.  pp.  304,  399. 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  87 

the  service  of  love,  and  so  doing  it  with  a  continual 
uninterrupted  cheerfulness,  peace,  and  joy.  This  was 
exempt  from  any  assuming  of  sinless  perfection,  the 
claim  to  which  was  abhorrent  to  her  feelings.  Now, 

O 

though  these  are  the  experiences  of  a  woman,  will 
any  one  say  there  is  any  thing  in  them  which  would 
be  unreasonable  or  undesirable  in  a  minister  of 
Christ  ?  True,  we  are  by  no  means  to  make  piety 
consist  in  transports,  as  is  irrefragably  proved  by  the 
great  man  who  recorded  these  things :  yet  there  are 
hours  or  days  in  every  life  of  long  continued  piety, 
which  are  remembered  for  years,  and  shed  their  light 
over  all  the  remaining  pilgrimage.  And  who  should 
covet  these  Pisgah  views,  if  not  ministers  of  the 
word  ?  There  is  among  the  posthumous  papers  of 
the  incomparable  Pascal,  one,  which  he  long  carried 
about  his  person,  and  which  contains  the  record  of  a 
particular  visitation  of  divine  love.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  seraphic  productions  of  human  language :  in 
some  places  the  joy  and  rapture  and  dissolving  love 
seem  to  defy  all  ordinary  expressions,  and  he  can  only 
write  down  such  broken  phrases  as,  joy — joy — tears — 
tears  ;  "joie—joie — pleurs  !  pleura  !  "  The  greatest 
scoffers  will  hardly  reckon  Pascal  and  Edwards  among 
unreasoning  devotees. 

Our  age  is  disposed  to  sneer  at  high  religious  pas 
sions  :  it  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  the  pathos  of  the 


88  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

pulpit  lias  to  such  a  degree  departed.  It  is  not,  how 
ever,  as  a  homiletic  instrumentality,  that  I  would 
urge  you  to  grow  in  grace,  but  for  more  momentous 
reasons,  which,  as  a  preacher,  you  have  long  since 
learned. 


LETTER  III. 

THE  HAPPINESS  OF  CHRIST'S  MINISTRY. 

THERE  is  a  romantic  view  of  the  clerical  office, 
which  may  induce  a  man  to  assume  it,  without  any 
religion ;  which  regards  only  its  social  and  literary 
appendages,  and  the  [status  in  society  which,  it  se 
cures,  even  where  there  is  no  establishment.  Younger 
sons  in  England  are  frequently  educated  for  the  Church, 
as  it  is  called,  and  spend  their  lives  in  a  service  for 
which  they  have  no  heart.  Even  though  they  may 
not  follow  the  hounds,  or  belong  to  the  "  dancing 
clergy,"  they  may  look  no  higher  than  the  literary 
accomplishments  of  their  place.  Coleridge  has  some 
where  given  an  exquisite  picture  of  a  secluded,  peace 
ful  rectory,  seen  in  this  light.  Look  at  the  Memoir 
of  Cary,  the  translator  of  Dante,  by  his  son,  and  you 
will  see  what  I  mean.  Both  were  clergymen :  yet 
there  is  as  little  religion  in  the  work,  as  if  it  had  been 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG-   MINISTERS.  89 

the  life  of  an  ancient  Greek.  The  contributions  of 
this  man  to  letters  were  vast,  but  to  religion  insignifi 
cant.  Now  let  us  beware  lest  some  thoughts  kindred 
to  these  creep  into  our  minds,  and  make  us  look  rather 
at  the  repose,  than  the  work,  of  the  ministry.  He 
grossly  errs,  who  considers  the  life  of  an  evangelist  as 
other  than  a  conflict.  Yet  it  is  happy ;  indeed  I 
hesitate  not  to  express  my  conviction,  that  the  life  of 
a  faithful  minister  is  the  happiest  on  earth.  Some 
there  are,  it  is  true,  who  are  dragged  into  it,  like  a 
reluctant  witness  into  court,  collo  obtorto,  and  who 
never  possess  any  of  its  rewards  :  but  there  are  many 
who  have  found  it  a  heavenly  service. 

In  seeking  the  constituents  of  this  happiness,  you 
should  not  look  at  the  accidents  of  the  ministry,  but 
at  its  substance ;  not  at  the  quietude,  respectability, 
emolument,  or  refining  culture,  but  at  the  lifelong 
embassy  from  the  Redeemer  to  lost  men.  The  truest, 
safest,  most  abiding  ministerial  pleasures  are  those 
which  come  from  delight  in  the  genuine  object  of  the 
ministry,  the  salvation  of  men.  But  there  is  a  col 
lateral  blessedness,  which  we  may  not  despise,  since 
God  has  deigned  to  bestow  it  on  his  servants.  Even 
this  you  will  be  most  sure  of  attaining,  if  you  have 
much  love  of  Christ,  love  of  the  gospel,  and  love  of 
souls. 

The  private  life  of  a  Christian  minister  ought  to 


90  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

be  a  happy  one.  The  apostles  inform  ns  in  what  it 
should  be  spent,  to  wit,  the  word  of  God  and  prayer. 
Acts  vi.  4.  I  should  account  it  lost  .time  to  go  about 
persuading  you,  that  there  is  a  happiness  in  the  study 
of  great  moral  and  religious  subjects,  especially  of  the 
word  of  God.  To  have  this  made  the  business  of 
your  days ;  to  find  your  chosen  solace  enjoined  as 
your  duty  to  be  shut  up  for  life  with  prophets  and 
apostles,  nay,  with  Jesus  Christ  himself,  speaking  in 
the  "  living  oracles,"  to  be  perpetually  drawing  water 
from  the  wells  of  salvation  ;  this  is  but  a  part  of  the 
minister's  joy.  "While  others  must  snatch  time  from 
exacting  toils,  for  communion  with  God,  he  may  de 
vote  whole  days  uninterruptedly  to  such  contempla 
tions  and  delights  as  we  find  recorded  in  the  lives  of 
Augustine,  Edwards,  and  Brainerd ;  and  may  live 
among  those  gardens  of  spices,  the  odours  of  which 
hang  about  the  pages  of  Binning  and  Rutherford. 
Catch  but  one  strain  from  the  experience  of  the  latter, 
and  tell  me  whether  he  were  happy  or  not ;  it  is  from 
one  of  his  letters :  "  O  glorious  tenants  and  trium 
phant  householders  with  the  Lamb,  put  in  new  psalms 
and  love-sonnets  of  the  excellency  of  our  Bridegroom, 
and  help  us  to  set  him  on  high !  O  indwellers  of 
earth  and  heaven,  sea  and  air,  and  O  all  ye  created 
beings,  within  the  bosom  of  the  utmost  circle  of  this 
great  world,  O  come,  help  to  set  on  high  the  praises 


LETTEKS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  91 

of  our  Lord  !  O  fairness  of  creatures,  blush  before 
his  uncreated  beauty  !  O  created  strength,  be  amazed 
to  stand  before  your  strong  Lord  of  hosts  !  O  created 
love,  think  shame  of  thyself  before  this  unparalleled 
love  of  heaven  !  O  angel  of  wisdom,  hide  thyself 
before  our  Lord,  whose  understanding  passeth  finding 
out !  O  sun,  in  thy  shining  beauty,  for  shame  put  on 
a  web  of  darkness,  and  cover  thyself  before  thy  bright 
est  Master  and  Maker  !  "  Though  these  are  not  pro 
fessional  flights  of  soul,  yet  who  should  enjoy  them, 
if  not  those  who  are  called  to  dwell  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord  all  the  days  of  their  life,  to  "  behold  the 
beauty  of  the  Lord,  and  to  inquire  in  his  temple  ?  " 
Psalm  xxvii.  4.  None  of  the  private  studies  of  the 
minister  are  absolutely  peculiar ;  yet  the  opportunity 
for  them  is  more  remarkably  his. 

There  is  happiness  in  preaching.  It  may  be  so 
performed  as  to  be  as  dull  to  the  speaker,  as  it  is  to 
the  hearers ;  but  in  favoured  instances  it  furnishes 
the  purest  and  noblest  excitements,  and  in  these  is 
happiness.  Nowhere  are  experienced,  more  than  in 
the  pulpit,  the  clear,  heavenward  soaring  of  the  in 
tellect,  the  daring  flight  of  imagination,  or  the  sweet 
agitations  of  holy  passion.  The  declaration  of  what 
one  believes,  and  the  praise  of  what  one  loves,  always 
give  delight :  and  what  but  this,  is  the  minister's 
work?  He  is  called  to  converse  with  the  highest 


92  THOUGHTS    ON    FKEACHING. 

truths  of  which  humanity  can  be  cognizant,  and,  if 
God  so  favour  him,  to  experience  the  noblest  emo 
tions  ;  and  this  most,  while  he  is  standing  "  in  Christ's 
stead." 

I  am  persuaded,  that  previously  to  trial,  no  young 
man  can  duly  estimate  the  glow  of  public  discourse 
as  a  source  of  pleasure.  When  the  soul  is  carried  by 
the  greatness  of  the  subject,  and  the  solemnity  of  the 
occasion,  above  its  ordinary  tracts,  so  as  to  be  at  once 
heated  and  enlarged  by  passion,  while  the  kindled 
countenances  of  the  hearers,  and  the  reflected  ardour 
of  their  glance,  carry  a  repercussive  influence  to  the 
speaker ;  or  when  the  tear  twinkles  in  the  eye  of  peni 
tence,  and  weeping  throngs  attest  the  power  of  truth 
and  affection ;  then  it  is  that  preaching  becomes  its 
own  reward.  This  is  more  than  rhetorical  excite 
ment  and  stage-heat ;  it  is  caused  by  Christian  emo 
tion.  Call  it  sympathy,  if  you  please ;  I  am  yet  to 
learn  what  harm  there  is  in  this  :  it  is  legitimate 
sympathy.  If  a  Christian  minister  ever  has  deep 
impressions  of  truth,  we  may  expect  it  to  be  in 
the  pulpit ;  there,  if  anywhere,  we  may  hope  for  spe 
cial  gifts  from  above ;  and  these  gifts  are  dispensed 
for  the  sake  of  the  hearer,  and  are  reckoned  on, 
as  graces,  or  tokens  of  individual  piety.  Yet  they 
constitute  a  great  part  of  the  preacher's  happi 
ness.  They  are  not  dependent  on  eloquence,  in 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  93 

its  common  meaning ;  for  they  fall  equally  to  the 
share  of  the  humblest,  rudest  preacher,  provided  he 
be  all  on  fire  with  his  subject,  and  bursting  with  love 
to  his  people.  ~No  scholarship,  filing,  or  varnish,  can 
compass  this  ;  it  comes  from  the  heart :  and  many  a 
minister  has  chipped  at  the  edges  of  his  sermon,  and 
veneered  it  with  nice  bits  of  extract,  only  to  find  that 
its  strength  had  been  whittled  away.  There  may  be 
more  awakening  or  melting,  in  a  backwoodsman's 
improvisation,  than  in  all  the  climacteric  periods  of 
Melville,  or  all  the  balanced  splendour  of  Macaulay. 
Certainly  the  delight  of  soul  is  on  the  side  of  him 
who  is  most  in  earnest.  It  is  especially  love  that 
moves  the  souls  of  hearers,  and  love,  in  its  very 
nature,  gives  happiness.  It  cannot  be,  that  a  man 
can  be  frequently  the  subject  of  those  feelings  which 
belong  to  evangelical  preaching,  without  being  for 
that  very  reason  a  happier  man. 

The  better  moments  of  Andrew  Gray,  Hall,  and 
Chalmers,  must  have  been  snatches  of  heaven.  But 
be  not  discouraged  when  I  mention  these  great  names : 
the  more  you  refer  the  joy  of  preaching  to  its  legiti 
mate  and  gracious  causes,  the  more  you  will  see  that  it 
may  exist  independently  of  wThat  the  world  calls  elo 
quence.  It  is  not  only  in  the  vast  assemblies  of  a 
Chrysostom,  a  Bridaine,  or  a  "Wliitefield,  that  the  ser 
vice  of  Christ  brings  its  sacred  pleasures,  but  in  Philip 


94:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

Henry's  little  parish  of  "Worthenbury,  which  never 
numbered  eighty  communicants ;  or  in  the  early 
morning-lectures  of  Komaine,  when  two  candles  lighted 
all  the  house.  ISTor  is  this  happiness  restricted  to 
great  and  decorated  edifices  ;  it  belongs  to  the  itine 
rant  missionary,  who  dismounts  from  his  tired  horse, 
and  gains  refreshment  by  dispensing  the  word  to  the 
gathering  under  the  ancient  oaks  ;  or  who  meets  his 
circuit  of  appointments  in  regions  where  the  truth 
has  scarcely  ever  been  heard.  I  exhort  you  to  seek 
your  highest  professional  delight  in  preaching  the 
gospel,  so  as  to  be  looking  forward  to  the  blessed 
hour  during  all  the  week. 

Little  space  is  left  for  me  to  say  that  the  minister 
of  the  gospel  has  a  source  of  happiness  in  his  parochial 
work  and  social  communion.  It  is  this,  indeed,  which 
distinguishes  his  calling,  and  is  its  grand  prerogative. 
This  brings  him  near  to  the  hearts  of  his  people,  and, 
unless  he  betrays  his  trust,  embraces  him  in  their 
affections.  The  ministry  may  indeed  be  so  discharged, 
as  that  the  pastor  shall  have  none  of  this :  he  sits 
with  his  hat  and  stick  in  his  hand,  makes  a  morning- 
call,  or  leaves  a  card  :  he  is  only  a  ceremonious  visitor, 
from  whom  the  children  do  not  run  and  hide,  only 
because  they  see  him  every  day  in  the  high -place. 
But  the  genuine  bond  is  as  strong  and  tender  as  any 
on  earth,  and  as  productive  of  happiness.  Think  of 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  05 

this,  when  you  are  tempted  to  discontent.  What  is 
it  that  really  constitutes  the  happiness  of  a  residence  ? 
Is  it  a  fine  house,  furniture,  equipage,  farm,  large 
salary,  wealthy  pew-holders  ?  Nay,  it  is  LOVE.  It  is 
the  affectionate  and  mutual  attachment.  It  is  the 
daily  flow  of  emotion,  and  commingling  of  interest  in 
common  sorrows  and  common  joys  ;  in  the  sick-room, 
and  the  house  of  bereavement,  at  the  death-bed  and 
the  grave,  at  baptisms  and  communions.  These 
things  may  be  in  the  poorest,  humblest  charge  :  then 
the  "  dinner  of  herbs  "  is  better  than  "  the  stalled 
ox."  Growing  old  among  such  associations,  the  pas 
tor  becomes  like  "  Paul  the  aged."  Let  us  strive 
after  a  happier,  that  we  may  have  a  more  fruitful, 
ministry. 

There  is  one  occasion  of  joy,  which  is  by  no  means 
rare  in  pastoral  experience,  and  which  ought  in  an 
other  of  its  aspects  to  be  laid  before  you  more  at 
large  ;  it  is  the  season  when  souls  are  awakened  and 
converted  in  great  numbers.  The  revival  brings  with 
it  the  joy  of  harvest.  Too  commonly  we  are  content 
to  be  like  those  who  "  glean  and  gather  after  the 
reapers  among  the  sheaves."  How  different  is  the 
case,  when  the  wide  fields  are  covered  with  golden 
ears !  Then  it  is,  that  "  he  that  reapeth  receiveth 
wages,  and  gathereth  fruit  unto  life  eternal."  John 
iv.  36.  Where  there  have  been  several  such  ingath- 


96  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

erings,  the  pastor  looks  around  upon  the  larger  part 
of  his  church,  as  seals  of  his  ministry,  and  in  their 
turn  they  regard  him  with  an  inexpressible  tenderness 
of  filial  attachment.  Growing  old,  in  such  circum 
stances,  he  is  the  patriarch  of  all  the  younger  genera 
tion  ;  and,  even  when  the  fire  of  his  prime  has  de 
parted,  can  fix  the  attention  and  reach  the  heart,  by 
means  of  this  very  relation.  See  what  strength  this 
tie  may  acquire,  even  where  the  pastor  is  young,  in 
the  account  of  McCheyne's  return  to  Dundee,  after 
his  mission  to  Palestine.  It  was  a  time  of  revival, 
and  though  he  had  not  been  himself  the  proximate 
.instrument,  he  rejoiced  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  saying, 
"  that  both  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth  may 
rejoice  together."  This  was  only  the  repetition  of 
scenes  which  occurred  among  our  Presbyterian  ances 
tors  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Ministers  and  peo 
ple  must  have  rejoiced  together  in  uncommon  de 
grees,  to  have  endured  the  fatigue  and  protracted  ser 
vices  of  such  occasions  as  are  recorded.  Under  the 
preaching,  for  example,  of  Mr.  William  Guthrie, 
author  of  the  "  Great  Interest,"  hundreds  of  his  hear 
ers  had  walked  miles  to  be  present.  It  was  their 
usual  practice  to  come  to  Fenwick  upon  Saturday, 
spend  the  greatest  part  of  that  night  in  prayer,  and  in 
conversation  on  the  state  of  their  souls,  attend  on  the 
Sabbath-worship,  and  on  Monday  return  cheerfully 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  97 

to  their  distant  homes.  Those  long  sacramental  ser 
vices  of  our  forefathers,  comprising  several  days,  and 
attended  by  thousands,  sometimes  excite  a  smile  ;  but 
they  remain  on  record,  as  monuments  of  the  elevated 
affections  of  those  who  joined  in  them,  and  enjoyed 
them.  Not  only  the  people,  but  the  ministers — may 
I  not  say  especially  the  ministers — were  happy  in  the 
fellowship  thus  enjoyed.  We  know  from  experience 
the  blessed  fraternity  and  mutual  affection,  cemented 
by  holy  joy,  which  prevail  in  those  parts  of  our 
church,  where  the  meetings  of  ecclesiastical  courts  are 
still  made  seasons  of  religious  service.  Such  com 
munity  of  interest  in  the  highest  good  tends,  beyond 
every  thing  else,  to  heal  dissensions,  and  to  exhibit 
ministers  of  Christ  to  his  people  in  that  union  which, 
unfortunately,  is  not  seldom  interrupted.  The  ex 
pectation  of  such  gratifications  may  be  lawfully  in 
dulged. 

After  all,  what  is  the  scriptural  statement  of  min 
isterial  happiness  ?  "  What  is  our  hope,  or  joy,  or 
crown  of  rejoicing  ?  "  asks  Paul ;  and  answers,  "  Ye 
are  our  glory  and  joy !  "  1  Thess.  ii.  19,  20.  Seek 
happiness,  my  dear  young  friend,  in  contemplation  of 
this  reward.  That  moment  will  indemnify  the  minis 
ter  for  the  losses  of  a  whole  life.  "  And  is  this  the 
end,"  he  will  exclaim,  "  of  all  my  labours,  my  toils, 
and  watchings ;  my  expostulations  with  sinners,  and 


98  THOUGHTS    ON   PEE  ACHING. 

my  efforts  to  console  the  faithful !  And  is  this  the 
issue  of  that  ministry  under  which  I  was  often  ready 
to  sink !  And  this  the  glory  of  which  I  heard  so 
much,  understood  so  little,  and  announced  to  my 
hearers  with  lisping  accents  and  a  stammering  tongue ! 
"Well  might  it  be  styled  the  glory  to  ~be  revealed.  Au 
spicious  day !  on  which  I  embarked  in  this  under 
taking,  on  which  the  love  of  Christ,  with  a  sweet 
and  sacred  violence,  impelled  me  to  feed  his  sheep 
and  to  feed  his  lambs.  With  what  emotion  shall  we, 
who,  being  intrusted  with  so  holy  a  ministry,  shall 
find  mercy  to  be  faithful,  hear  that  voice  from  heaven, 
{  Rejoice  and  be  glad,  and  give  honour  to  him  ;  for 
the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  his  wife  hath 
made  herself  ready  ! '  With  what  rapture  shall  we 
recognize,  amid  an  innumerable  multitude,  the  seals 
of  our  ministry,  the  persons  whom  we  have  been  the 
means  of  conducting  to  that  glory  !  "  * 

When  you  asked  me  for  some  advice  respecting  a 
course  of  ministerial  study,  you  probably  did  not  ex 
pect  a  series  of  letters  so  much  like  sermons  as  these 
have  been.  In  due  time,  if  your  patience  should  hold 
out,  I  hope  to  fulfil  my  original  intention  ;  but  I  de 
sire  that  we  may  both  feel  more  and  more  deeply  that 
none  of  our  studies  will  be  directed  aright,  unless  we 
begin  with  just  views  of  the  great  object  of  our  call- 

*  1  Hall's  Works,  p.  151. 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  99 

ing.  For  this  reason,  I  have  ventured  to  spend  some 
time  in  setting  forth  considerations,  which  may  serve 
to  awaken  the  true  ministerial  zeal,  and  to  turn  your 
wishes  and  hopes  towards  the  right  quarter. 


LETTER   IV. 

CLERICAL     STUDIES. 

"WHEN  learning  in  the  ministry  is  mentioned,  some 
are  ready  to  think  of  a  purely  secular  erudition,  such 
as  withdraws  a  man  from  his  duty,  or  unfits  him  for 
it.  Of  this  there  have  been  too  many  instances,  es 
pecially  in  countries  where  rich  benefices  have  been 
afforded  by  an  established  religion.  Even  in  a  very 
different  state  of  things,  the  clergyman  may  become 
a  mere  savant  or  litterateur,  and  rob  his  spiritual 
charge  of  the  time  which  he  spends  in  his  researches. 
Such  scholars  may  be  very  useful  to  society,  yet  most 
unfaithful  to  their  vows,  and  it  is  under  their  auspices 
that  evangelical  warmth  has  commonly  died  out  in 
Protestant  Churches.  Without  going  to  the  extreme 
of  Sterne,  who  was  a  licentious  trifler ;  of  Swift, 
who  was  a  Cynic,  in  both  the  senses  of  misanthropy 
and  filth  ;  and  of  Robertson,  who  was  scarcely  a  be 
liever,  one  may  sacrifice  Christ  to  the  muses.  The 


100  THOUGHTS  ON  PEEACHING. 

Church  of  England  continues  to  furnish  some  bril 
liant  examples  of  this  from  the  prizes  held  out  to 
men  of  learning,  and  the  rich  livings  and  fellowships 
which  support  clergymen  without  the  necessity  of 
parochial  labour.  Where  the  vocation  of  such  a  man 
is  to  the  instruction  of  youth,  we  surely  will  not  com 
plain,  if  Providence  allot  to  him  a  high  distinction  in 
science  or  letters,  along  with  faithful  discharge  of 

O  C> 

ministerial  duty,  even  though  the  latter  should  not 
absorb  all  his  care :  you  will  remember  such  men  as 
Isaac  Milner,  Jowett,  and  Farish.  Yet  I  beg  you  to 
observe,  that  the  ministerial  learning  which  I  am  re 
commending  is  none  of  these,  but  is  solely  the  disci 
pline  and  accomplishment  whereby  you  shall  be  better 
fitted  for  your  appropriate  work,  and  is  therefore 
subordinated  to  your  professional  activity.  This  cir 
cle  indeed  is  much  vaster  than  some  people  think, 
and  may  in  its  sweep,  comprise,  in  certain  circum 
stances,  and  by  turns,  every  part  of  the  field  of 
knowledge  ;  yet  the  particular  aspect  under  which  it  is 
viewed  is  that  of  an  auxiliary  to  the  preacher  and  the 
pastor.  The  study  is  not  a  place  for  lettered  luxury, 
nor  for  ambitious  lucubration,  with  views  fixed  on 
secular  authorship  or  academical  promotion  ;  but  the 
sacred  palsestra  in  which  Christ's  soldier  is  supposed 
to  be  forging  his  armour,  and  hardening  his  muscle, 
and  training  his  agility,  for  the  actual  combat  of  the 


LETTERS    TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  101 

ministry.  And  you  must  allow  me  to  tell  you  plainly, 
that  the  danger  is  not  that  you  will  have  too  much 
of  this  preparation,  that  you  will  be  overeducated, 
or  extravagantly  learned,  but  all  the  reverse.  You 
may  get  great  learning,  with  a  bad  motive  ;  you  may 
get  little,  with  the  same :  but  all  you  will  ever  get, 
multiplied  ten  times,  will  not  be  too  much  for  your 
work,  or  more  than  the  Church  and  the  times  demand. 
^Neither  devotion,  nor  active  labour,  will  furnish  you 
an  excuse  for  the  neglect  of  knowledge.  This  is  a 
question  where  examples  are  worth  more  than  rea 
sons.  Look  at  Luther.  "Who  was  more  devout? 
who  was  more  active  ?  Yet  who  was  more  devoted 
to  learning,  or  more  profoundly  anxious,  to  the  very 
close  of  life,  that  literature  and  religion  should  never 
be  divorced,  in  the  ministry  of  the  Protestant 
Churches  ?  This  it  was  which  occasioned  his  famous 
sermon  on  the  education  of  children  :  he  perceived  as 
early  as  1530,  that  in  the  fervours  of  reformation- 
piety  there  was  a  disposition  to  neglect  refined  culti 
vation  ;  he  therefore  penned  this  address,  during  a 
sojourn  at  Coburg.  There  is  in  it  a  passage  so  truly 
Lutheran,  that  I  must  give  it  you,  even  at  risk  of  not 
sticking  to  my  text.  You  will  see  in  it  the  very  pres 
ence  of  the  Brother  Martin  of  Goethe's  Goetz  von 
Berlichingen,  as  knitting  his  brow  against  the  hard- 
fisted  barons  of  his  day.  It  shows,  moreover,  that  he 


102  THOUGHTS    ON    PltEACHING. 

thought  of  labour,  and  not  amusement.  "  There  be 
some  who  think  that  the  writer's  office  is  a  light, 
trifling  office,  but  that  to  ride  in  armour,  and  bear 
heat,  cold,  dust,  drought,  and  the  like,  is  labour  in 
deed.  Aye,  this  is  the  old,  trite,  every-day  proverb, 
No  man  knows  where  his  neighbours  shoe  Clinches. 
Every  one  feels  his  own  disquiet,  and  gapes  after  the 
quiet  of  his  fellow.  True  it  is,  it  were  toil  to  me,  to 
ride  in  armour  ;  but  then,  on  the  other  hand,  I  would 
fain  see  the  knight  who  could  join  me  in  sitting  still 
all  day,  looking  on  a  book.  Ask  of  any  chancery 
scribe,  preacher,  or  orator,  what  sort  of  labour  there 
is  in  writing  and  speaking ;  ask  the  schoolmaster, 
what  toil  there  is  in  teaching  and  training  boys.  A 
pen  is  a  light  thing,  that  is  true  ;  and  there  is  no  tool 
more  easily  obtained,  among  all  handicraft,  for  it  asks 
only  the  wings  of  geese,  of  which  there  is  abundance ; 
but  there  must  be  added  to  this  the  best  part  of  man, 
the  head,  and  the  noblest  member,  the  tongue,  and  his 
highest  work,  discourse.  All  these  must  work  to 
gether,  in  the  writer  ;  whereas  in  the  other  it  is  only 
the  fist,  foot,  and  loins,  for  he  can  sing  and  joke  all 
the  wThile,  which  the  writer  must  let  alone.  '  It  is 
three  fingers'  work,'  (so  they  say  of  writing  ;)  but  it 
takes  the  whole  body  and  soul  to  boot.  I  have  heard 
say  of  the  noble  dear  Emperor  Maximilian,  when  the 
great  Jacks  (Hansen)  about  him  used  to  grumble,  be- 


LETTEKS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  103 

cause  he  employed  writers  so  mncli  in  embassies,  and 
otherwise,  that  he  spoke  thus  : — '  Well,  what  must  I 
do  ?  You  would  not  let  yourselves  be  useful,  so  I 
had  to  take  writers.'  And  again  :  '  Knights  I  can 
make,  but  not  doctors.'  So  I  have  heard  of  a  clever 
nobleman  that  he  said  :  '  My  boy  shall  go  to  studies  ; 
it  is  no  great  art  to  hang  two  legs  over  a  horse,  and 
be  a  rider  ;  that  he  has  already  learnt  with  me.'  It 
was  well  and  cleverly  spoken.  I  say  not  this  out  of 
contempt  for  the  knightly  order,  or  any  other  order, 
but  against  the  losel  troopers  (losen  Scharrhanseri) 
who  contemn  all  letters  and  art,  and  boast  of  nought 
but  wearing  harness,  and  bestriding  horse ;  though 
this  they  do  but  seldom,  and  have  for  it  lodging,  ease, 
mirth,  honour,  and  well-being  all  the  year  round.  It 
is  true,  as  the  saying  goes,  '  Harness  is  heavy,  and 
learning  is  light ; '  yet  on  the  other  hand,  to  learn 
to  bear  harness  is  easy,  but  to  learn,  practise,  and  exer 
cise  art  and  science  is  hard."  Perhaps  no  one,  not 
even  Melancthon,  ever  uttered  a  higher  panegyric  on 
clerical  learning  than  Luther  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
Eobanus  Hess.  "  Ego  persuasus  sum,"  says  he,  "  sine 
literarum  peritia  prorsus  stare  non  posse  sinceram 
theologiam,  sicut  hactenus  ruentibus  et  jacentibus 
literis  miserrime  et  cecidit  et  jacuit.  Quin  video, 
iranqiiam  fuisse  insignem  factam  vcrbi  Dei  revela- 
tionem,  nisi  prime,  velut  prcecursoribus  baptistis, 


104  THOUGHTS  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

viam  pararit  surgentibus  et  florentibus  lingiiis  et  lit- 
eris."  * 

But  do  not  imagine  from  these  remarks,  that  what 
I  recommend  to  you  at  present  is  only,  or  chiefly, 
literature,  in  the  popular  acceptation  of  the  word,  and 
as  distinguished  from  professional  study.  It  is  this 
last  which  should  awaken  your  chief  interest,  and  the 
rest  may  be  more  safely  left  to  take  care  of  itself. 
There  is  no  need  of  solicitation  or  stimulation,  to  bring 
a  man  in  our  day  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  lighter 
material ;  it  floats  011  the  surface,  and  is  carried  by 
the  tide  to  his  very  doors.  Make  sure  of  the  solids, 
and  I  have  small  fear  of  your  suffering  for  lack  of 
novels,  fugitive  poems,  magazines,  and  young-lady 
literature.  Familiarize  yourself  with  master-pieces  ; 
you  will  find  in  them  relaxation  enough,  and  may  afford 
to  look  on  the  perishing  nothings  of  the  hour,  as  you 
do  on  the  drift  that  plays  along  the  edges  of  your 
river.  I  do  not,  of  course,  exclude  the  master-pieces 
of  our  own  day  ;  but  truly  great  works  are  so  numer 
ous,  that  you  need  no  more  debauch  your  taste  by 
reading  them,  than  you  need  drink  Oberlin  bread- 
coffee  instead  of  Mocha. 

These  things  are  true,  even  of  simple  literature ; 
but  how  the  subject  rises,  when  you  look  on  yourself 
as  called  of  God  to  live  for  his  glory,  to  labour  for 

*  Vol.  x.  ed.  Bcrl.  1841,  p.  159.     Ep.  cccclxxviii. 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  105 

souls,  to  expound  his  word !  One  lifetime  is  very 
little  for  the  attainment  of  the  objects  which  seem 
indispensable,  and  some  of  which  I  hope  shortly  to 
table  before  you.  Who,  for  example,  even  of  the 
Chalmerses,  Dwights,  and  Masons,  could  say  that  he 
had  travelled  round  the  entire  curriculum  of  theol 
ogy  ?  "Who  is  the  perfect  historian  ?  I  am  sure  it 
will  be  claimed  by  any  rather  than  the  Schroeckhs, 
Gieselers,  and  Meanders.  Who  is  omnibus  numeris 
complete  in  Hebrew,  or  even  in  Greek  ?  Thus  might 
I  go  through  the  encyclopaedia,  and  each  would  say, 
"  It  is  not  in  me."  So  that  the  difficulty  will  not  be 
to  find  out  what  a  minister  shall  fill  his  time  with  in 
the  study.,  but  how,  amidst  his  sacred  and  importu 
nate  engagements,  he  can  obtain  any  time  for  private 
labours.  Looking  at  the  greatness  of  the  harvest, 
and  the  shortness  of  life,  one  is  tempted  at  the  first 
blush  to  say,  Let  the  study  alone ;  go  forth  and  save 
souls.  And  this  has  been  so  much  the  tendency  in 
every  era  of  church  revival,  that  it  would  have  been 
the  settled  policy  to  multiply  unlettered  preachers,  if 
God,  in  his  wonderful  providence,  had  not,  at  the 
forming  periods,  raised  up  men  to  hold  fast  by  the 
immovable  maxims  of  sound  learning.  Such  was 
Melancthon  in  Germany  ;  such  was  Melville  in  Scot 
land.  To  the  second  of  these,  who  can  tell  how  much 
Presbytery  is  beholden  ?  When,  in  1574,  he  returned 
5* 


106  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

to  his  native  land,  from  a  five  years'  attendance  on 
the  prelections  of  such  men  as  Turnebus,  Ramus,  and 
Beza,  deeply  read  in  Hebrew  and  Syriac,  able  to  de 
claim  fluently  in  Greek,  and  a  fit  comrade  for  Bu 
chanan,  the  great  latinist  of  his  day,  Melville  set  up 
a  standard  at  Glasgow,  which  may  well  surprise  us. 
"  He  taught  usuallie  twise  in  the  day.  Beside  his 
ordinar  profession!!  of  divinitie  and  the  oriental 
tongues,  he  taught  the  Greek  Grammar,  Ramus's 
Dialectick,  Talseus's  Blietorick,  Ramus's  Arithmetick 
and  Geometric,  the  Elements  of  Euclide,  Aristotle's 
Ethicks,  Politicks,  and  Physicks,  some  of  Plato's  Dia 
logues,  Dionysius's  Geographic,  Hunterus's  Tables, 
and  a  part  of  Fernell.  The  schollers  frequented  to 
the  Colledge  in  suche  numbers  that  the  rowmes  were 
skarse  able  to  receave  them."  *  Thorough  learning  in 
the  ministry  was  builded  into  the  very  foundation, 
and  has  continued  to  characterize  the  structure.  In 
the  earliest  struggles  of  our  Church  in  this  new  coun 
try,  Presbyterian  ministers  were  constantly  seen  unit 
ing  the  self-denying  ardours  of  the  mission  with  the 
toils  of  the  school  and  college.  And  when,  under 
temptations  almost  irresistible,  it  was  sought  to 
change  the  demand  of  qualification,  the  General 
Assembly  chose  rather  to  suffer  the  loss  of  a  valuable 
limb,  than  to  swerve  from  principles  which  were  nec- 

*  Caldenvood,  pp.  Ill,  339. 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  107 

essaiy  to  the  healthful  integrity  of  the  body.  If  our 
brethren  are  unanimous  in  any  thing,  it  is,  in  Luther's 
judgment,  that  sound  and  varied  learning  must  be  sus 
tained,  if  we  would  preserve  the  Church. 

You  will  mistake  my  meaning,  if  you  fancy  that 
the  learning  which  I  am  holding  up  as  suitable  for 
the  minister  of  the  gospel,  is  such  as  might  be  de 
manded  in  a  professor  of  the  sciences,  or  a  writer  on 
classical  and  philological  literature.  It  may  be  as 
great  as  these,  but  it  differs  in  kind,  and  excludes  a 
multitude  of  details,  on  which  the  other  must  expend 
labour.  It  is  ministerial,  or  in  its  widest  sense  theo 
logical  learning,  which  is  pleaded  for :  but  this  is 
enough  for  all  the  powers.  ~No  man  need  ever  ex 
patiate  beyond  the  metes  of  divine  science,  from  any 
want  of  room  in  the  latter,  or  any  excess  of  faculty 
above  what  may  be  consumed  on  the  Scriptures. 
Lightfoot  and  Marckius,  and  other  voluminous  orig 
inal  commentators,  doubtless  were  ready  to  acknowl 
edge  that  they  had  touched  these  waters  only  pri- 
moribus  Icibiis.  It  is  therefore  with  no  extenuation 
of  the  work,  that  I  say  the  clerical  student  is  to  pur 
sue  clerical  studies :  yet  it  may  prevent  misappre 
hension,  and  remove  objection,  by  showing  the  per 
fect  harmony  of  the  discipline  proposed,  with  the 
daily  incumbent  duties  of  the  sacred  calling. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  maintaining  a  transient 


108  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHINO. 

popularity,  and  having  a  little  usefulness,  without 
any  deep  study  ;  but  this  fire  of  straw  soon  burns 
out,  this  cistern  soon  fails.  The  preacher  \vho  is  con 
stantly  pouring  out,  and  seldom  pouring  in,  can  pour 
but  a  little  while.  I  need  hardly  caution  you  against 
the  sententious  maxim,  prevalent  among  freshmen, 
concerning  those  great  geniuses,  who  read  little,  but 
tJiink  much.  They  even  cite,  as  of  their  party,  one 
of  the  greatest  readers  who  ever  wrote,  as  every  work 
of  his  goes  to  prove  ;  to  wit,  Shakspeare  !  The  great 
est  thinkers  have  been  the  greatest  readers,  though 
the  converse  is  by  no  means  true.  In  reading  the 
writings  of  those  most  remarkable  for  originality  and 
invention — and  mark,  it  is  in  reference  to  these  qual 
ities  only  the  reference  is  now  made — we  know  not 
wrhether  most  to  admire  the  adventurous  nights  of 
their  own  daring,  or  their  extensive  acquaintance 
with  all  that  has  been  written  before,  on  their  chosen 
topics.  You  will  see  this  remark  strikingly  verified 
in  the  productions  of  Descartes,  Leibnitz,  and  Hegel. 
While,  however,  I  say  thus  much  for  reading,  I  own 
that  reading  is  but  a  part  of  study  ;  and  that  he  can 
not  be  admitted  to  the  title  of  learned,  who  has  not 
the  habit  of  concocting,  methodizing,  and  expressing 
his  own  thoughts.  The  great  point  is  this  :  there  must 
be  perpetual  acquisition.  This  is  the  secret  of  preach 
ing.  What  theologians  say  of  preparation  for  death, 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  109 

may  be  said  of  preparation  for  preaching ;  there  is 
habitual,  and  there  is  actual  preparation  :  the  cur 
rent  of  daily  study,  and  the  gathering  of  material  for 
a  given  task.  It  may  be  compared  with  what  is 
familiar,  in  another  faculty,  that  of  Law  :  the  lawyer 
has  his  course  of  perpetual  research,  in  the  great  prin 
ciples  of  general  jurisprudence,  or  the  history  of  stat 
utory  enactment,  or  the  systematic  arrangement  of 
practical  methods,  and  he  has  his  laborious  and  some 
times  sudden  reading-up  for  an  emergent  case.  Should 
he  confine  himself  entirely  to  the  latter,  he  must  be 
come  a  narrow,  though  perhaps  an  acute,  practitioner. 
So  likewise,  the  clerical  scholar,  however  diligent, 
punctual,  and  persistent,  who  throws  his  whole 
strength  into  the  preparation  of  sermons,  and  who 
never  rises  to  higher  views,  or  takes  a  larger  career 
through  the  wide  expanse  of  scientific  and  methodized 
truth,  must  infallibly  grow  up  stiff,  cramped,  lop 
sided,  and  defective.  His  scheme  of  preaching  may 
never  take  him  through  the  entire  curve  of  theology 
and  Scripture ;  or  the  providential  leadings  of  his 
ministry  may  bring  him  again  and  again  over  the 
same  portions.  These  are  evils  which  can  be  pre 
vented  only  by  the  resolute  pursuit  of  general  studies, 
irrespectively  of  special  pulpit  performance.  Such 
habits  will  tend  to  keep  a  man  always  prepared  ;  and 
instead  of  getting  to  the  bottom  of  his  barrel  as  he 


110  THOUGHTS   ON   PEE  ACHING. 

grows  older,  lie  will  be  more  and  more  prepared,  as 
long  as  his  faculties  last.  But  the  grand  evil  to  be 
warred  against  by  the  younger  preacher,  is  not  that 
of  confining  himself  to  pulpit  preparation,  but  that  of 
not  preparing  at  all :  and  by  preparation  I  mean 
study.  To  seize  a  pen,  and  dash  off  a  discourse,  on  a 
subject  heretofore  not  familiar,  and  with  such  thoughts 
as  occur  while  one  is  writing,  may  insure  ease  and 
fluency  of  manner,  but  is  little  better  than  the  delivery 
of  the  same  thoughts  without  writing :  indeed,  the 
latter  possesses  some  great  advantages,  from  the  ele 
vation  of  the  powers  by  sympathy,  passion,  and  at 
tendant  devotion.  Engrave  it  upon  your  souls,  that 
the  whole  business  of  your  life  is  to  prepare  yourself 
for  the  work,  and  that  no  concentration  of  powers  can 
be  too  great.  The  crying  evil  of  our  sermons  is  want 
of  matter  /  we  try  to  remedy  this  evil,  and  that  evil, 
when  the  thing  we  should  do  is  to  get  something  to 
say :  and  the  laborious  devotion  of  some  young 
clergymen  to  rhetoric  and  style  instead  of  theology, 
is  as  if  one  should  study  a  cookery-book  when  he 
should  be  going  to  market.  I  yesterday  listened  to  a 
sermon,  (and  I  am  glad  1  do  not  know  the  preacher's 
name,)  which  was  twenty-five  minutes  long,  but  of 
which  all  the  matter  might  have  been  uttered  in  five. 
It  was  like  what  the  ladies  call  trifle,  all  sweetness 
and  froth,  except  a  modicum  of  cake  at  the  bottom. 


LETTEES    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  Ill 

It  was  doubtless  written  extempore.  When  a  young 
clergyman  once  inquired  of  Dr.  Bellamy,  what  he 
should  do  to  have  matter  for  his  discourses,  the 
shrewd  old  gentleman  replied,  "  Fill  up  the  cask, 
fill  up  the  cask,  FILL  UP  THE  CASK  !  Then,  if  you  tap 
it  anywhere,  you  will  get  a  good  stream  ;  but  if  you 
put  in  but  little,  it  will  dribble,  dribble,  dribble,  and 
you  must  tap,  tap,  tap  ;  and  then  get  but  little  after 
all." 

If  in  this  daily  pursuit  of  knowledge,  you  keep 
constantly  before  your  mind  the  end  for  which  you 
seek  it,  there  need  be  no  fear  of  excess  :  it  is  studies 
which  divert  us  from  the  evangelic  wrork,  that  are  to 
be  deprecated.  To  the  last  day  of  life,  regard  your 
mental  powers  as  given  you  to  be  kept  in  continual 
working  order,  and  continual  improvement,  and  this 
with  reference  to  the  work  of  preaching  and  teaching. 
You  will  find  all  great  preachers  to  have  lived  thus  ; 
and  though  neither  you  nor  I  should  ever  become 
great,  we  shall  sink  the  less  by  reason  of  such  strug 
gles.  The  whole  of  what  we  have  to  learn  is,  sub 
stantially,  in  one  volume  ;  for  by  this,  it  is  declared, 
the  man  of  God  may  become  aprios  TT/JOS  irav 
c'ya&bv  I 


112  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

LETTER  V. 

HOW    TO    FIND    TIME    FOE    LEARNING. 

ALL  ministers  are  not  called  to  be  equally  learned : 
it  would  be  idle  to  expect  such  a  result,  amidst  the 
marked  differences  of  talent  and  circumstances.  There 
is  a  gradation  in  this  respect  from  the  young  pastor 
who  has  almost  all  his  time  at  his  command,  to  the 
itinerant  who  thinks  he  can  do  no  more  than  read  his 
pocket  Bible.  The  objection  to  regular  studies  which 
meets  us  most  frequently  is,  that  there  is  no  time  for 
labour  in  the  closet,  from  the  pressure  of  parochial 
cares.  You  need  no  prompter  as  to  this  :  indeed,  I 
fancy  I  hear  you  exclaiming,  How  is  it  possible  for 
one  situated  as  I  am,  to  find  hours  for  learning  ?  I 
desire,  in  the  present  letter,  to  answer  this  very  ques 
tion,  and  to  suggest  a  few  considerations  which  will, 
perhaps,  clear  the  path,  and  open  some  light  through 
the  seeming  forest.  After  having  had  the  same  per 
plexities,  I  think  I  perceive  certain  principles  by  which 
a  life  of  faithful  pastoral  and  pulpit  labour  may  be 
made  compatible  with  sedulous  application. 

First  of  all,  if  you  would  make  the  most  of  your 
scanty  hours,  keep  the  one  sacred  object  in  view  in 
every  study  you  undertake.  This  is  the  way  to  se- 


LETTERS    TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  113 

cure  unity  of  plan.     You  bear  in  mind  the  twentieth 
proposition  of  Euclid's  first  book  :  the  straighter  your 
line,  the  shorter.     I  trust  it  is  no  wresting  of  the 
apostle's  words  to  say,    One  thing  I  do  j    or   more 
laconically  still,  in  the  four  letters  of  the  original,  ez/ 
8e.     Let  your  intentions  branch  out  in  every  direc 
tion,  undetermined  whether  you  mean  to  be  a  great 
linguist,  or  an  elegant  classic,  or  a  mathematician,  or, 
peradventure,  a  botanist,  or  a  master  of  English  liter 
ature,  and  it  is  plain  enough  that  you  will  find  all 
your  time  too  little.     There  is  such  a  thing  as  being 
very  idly  and  unprofitably  engaged  in  one's  study. 
Far  from  loving  restriction,  or  from  wishing  to  coerce 
the  mind  in  pursuing  its  bent,  I  would,  nevertheless, 
beseech  you,  when  you   go   among  your  books,  to 
know  what  you  are  after.     Your  end  in  life  is  suffi 
ciently  obvious  ;  and  the  studies  by  which  it  is  to  be 
attained  are  enough  to  occupy  your  time,  if  you  are 
but  faithful.     It  is  of  deliberate  and  stated  applica 
tion  that  I  now  speak  :  you  certainly  will  not  expect 
me  to  plan  ways  and  means  of  gaining  time  for  the 
annuals,  monthlies,  or  weeklies.      In   your  regular 
professional  studies,  you  will   find   the   whole  field 
brought  more  clearly  under  survey,  and  the  whole 
process  simplified,  by  looking  on  every  part  of  it  with 
reference  to  your  main  work  of  expounding  the  Scrip 
tures  and  preaching  the  gospel. 


THOUGHTS    ON    PEE  ACHING. 

This  leads  to  a  second  suggestion,  of  a  particular 
under  this  general  head.     Form  the  habit  of  contem 
plating  all  your  study  as  the  study  of  the  word  of 
God.     In  a  large,  but  just  sense,  it  is  undoubtedly  so. 
All  your  discipline  and  all  your  acquisition,  all  your 
reasoning  power  and  all  your  taste,  all  your  library 
and  all  your  eloquence,  are  only  so  many  means  for 
learning  God's  word,  and  for  teaching  it.     Exegesis, 
theology,  controversy,  church  history,  are  only  por 
tions   of  the   apparatus   for  learning   and   teaching. 
"With  this  in  your  mind,  you  may  go  much  further 
than  many  think,  and  yet  return  safe.     As  Scott,  the 
commentator,    used  to   say,    "  The    bee  may   range 
widely,  so   that  it  brings  all  to  the  hive."     Say  to 
yourself  daily,  En  codicem  sacrum  !     "  Here  is  my 
hive ;  hither  all  my  gatherings  must  be  brought." 
The  range  of  some  men  has  been  wonderful,  and  their 
powers  of  assimilation  have  been  so  great,  that  they 
have  laid  every  department  under  contribution,  and 
filled   their  discourses  writh   the  digested  results   of 
multifarious  and  almost  incongruous  reading :    take 
as   instances   Baxter,   Saurin,    and   Chalmers.      But 
common  minds  need  a  strong  centripetal  force,  and 
this  is  to  be  found  in  reverential  love  for  Holy  Scrip 
ture.     No  method  known  to  me  is  so  likely  to  keep 
you  in  the  right  state  of  mind,  in  this  respect,  as  the 
practice  of  devoting  the  first  and  best  part  of  every 


LETTERS    TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS .  116 

day  to  the  perusal  of  the  Bible  in  the  original  tongues. 
Few  will  the  days  be,  in  which  you  will  not  discern 
the  directive  influence  of  this  on  the  researches  of  the 
subsequent  hours  ;  and  the  influence  will  be  there, 
even  when  not  discerned. 

From  what  has  just  been  said,  you  will  deduce  the 
all-important  rule,  to  lop  oif  all  irrelevant  studies. 
Observe,  we  are  not  talking  now  of  amusements,  but 
of  dogged  labour.  And  if  you  mean  to  succeed,  and 
to  save  precious  time,  see  to  it,  that  you  rid  yourself 
of  all  impertinent  matters.  In  this  age  of  books, 
tempting  studies  will  grow  rank  around  you,  and  creep 
into  your  windows,  as  a  great  vine  has  been  doing  into 
the  chamber  where  I  write ;  but  you  must  be  unre 
lenting,  and  make  short  work  with  their  pretensions. 
The  blue  and  yellow  flowers  among  the  corn  must  be 
plucked  out,  and  you  must  be  doing  it  every  day.  It 
is  not  a  bad  remark  of  Helvetius,  though  a  bad  man, 
that  in  our  day  the  secret  of  being  learned,  is  heroic 
ally  to  determine  to  be  ignorant  of  many  things  in 
which  men  take  pride.  Keep,  as  Fenelon  says,  the 
pruning-knife  in  hand,  to  cut  away  all  that  is  need 
less  :  "  On  a  besoin  d'etre  sans  cesse  la  faucille  en 
main,  pour  retrancher  le  superflu  des  paroles  et  des 
occupations."  *  Especially  must  this  resolution  be  ex 
ercised  towards  such  branches  of  study  as  require  a 

*  Ep.  338. 


116  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

great  expense  of  time,  in  order  to  any  proficiency. 
There  are  some  arts  which  are  so  jealous  as  to  usurp 
the  whole  life.  ^Elian  tells  of  a  young  Greek  who 
took  up  a  famous  philosopher  into  his  chariot,  and, 
driving  round  the  stadium  at  full  speed,  showed  him 
that  his  wheel  had  never  deviated  from  a  given  line : 
the  philosopher  replied,  "  Now  you  have  demonstrated 
to  me  that  you  are  fit  for  nothing  else."  There  are, 
indeed,  cases  in  which  a  strong  tendency  of  taste  and 
genius,  toward  some  foreign  branch  of  knowledge, 
as  for  example  mathematics  or  geology  or  language, 
may  break  through  all  rule,  and  force  the  clergyman 
to  eminence  in  his  chosen  or  destined  pursuit.  But 
these  are  exempt  cases,  and  we  are  treating  of  those 
persons  who  avow  their  determination  to  live  and  die 
in  the  work  of  the  ministry.  If  yon,  my  dear  friend, 
have  other  intentions,  express  them  frankly,  and  save 
me  the  pains  of  any  further  disquisitions.  But  he 
who  chooses  the  service  of  God  in  his  sanctuary  is 
called  to  great  subjects,  which  are  sufficient  to  fill  up 
all  his  thoughts.  "Whatever  a  man  may  do  as  sub 
sidiary  to  these,  or  as  a  healthful  diversion  from 
them,  it  is  still  true  that  scriptural  or  theological 
learning  is  the  peculiar  domain  of  the  clergyman. 

Lest  this  should  be  thought  too  exclusive,  I  must 
add,  that  some  degree  of  acquaintance  with  collateral 
sciences  is  absolutely  necessary  to  a  full  understand- 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  117 

ing  of  our  own  ;  for,  as  Lord  Bacon  says,  large  pros 
pects  are  to  be  made  not  from  our  own  ground,  but 
from  contiguous  towers  and  high  places.*  But  an 
other  sagacious  observer  says  :  "  It  is  in  my  opinion, 
not  any  honour  to  a  minister,  to  be  very  famous  in 
any  branch  that  is  wholly  unconnected  with  theology ; 
not  that  knowledge  of  any  thing,  properly  speaking, 
is  either  a  disadvantage  or  ground  of  reproach  ;  but 
for  a  man  to  show  a  deep  knowledge  of  some  particu 
lar  subject  plainly  discovers  that  he  hath  bestowed 
more  time  and  pains  upon  it  than  he  had  to  spare 
from  necessary  duty."  f  There  is  more  self-denial  in 
acting  on  this  maxim  than  is  commonly  thought,  and 
you  will  often  be  called  upon  to  lay  aside  darling  en 
tertainments  that  you  may  more  fully  make  proof  of 
your  ministry.  "Whatever  will  enable  you  to  preach 
better,  though  it  were  a  fable  or  a  ballad,  you  may 
legitimately  include  in  your  plan  ;  but  when  you  lay 
out  your  chief  strength  on  matters  purely  secular,  you 
so  far  abuse  the  golden  vessel  of  the  sanctuary.  Ob 
serve  this  rule,  and  your  will  find  it  more  easy  to  ac 
complish  study,  even  in  your  limited  time. 

It  is  not  unworthy  of  statement,  that  there  is  such 

*  "  Prospectationcs  fiunt  a  turribus  aut  locis  prsealtis ;  ct  impossi- 
bile  cst  ut  quis  exploret  remotiores  interioris  scientia?  alicujus  partes, 
si  stet  super  piano  cjusdem  scientias,  neque  altioris  sciential  vcluti 
speculum  conscendat." — Nov.  Org. 

f  Witherspoon's  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  20. 


118  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

a  thing  as  making  the  line  of  your  studies  coincide 
with  the  tenor  of  your  preaching,  even  without  the 
wearisome  formality  of  a  declared  series.  The  sub 
ject  of  the  sermon  ought  somehow  to  be  included  in 
some  recent  course  of  study,  though  much  of  the 
latter  may  never  be  brought  into  the  sermon.  If, 
for  example,  you  should  be  going  into  those  heads 
of  divinity  which  relate  to  the  Person  of  Christ,  you 
might  easily  draw  material  for  all  your  morning  dis 
courses  from  subjects  allied  to  this  :  in  this  you  will 
find  great  economy  of  time. 

You  cannot  well  overrate  the  benefit  to  be  de 
rived,  in  these  respects,  from  carrying  always  with 
you  a  high  estimate  of.  your  study-labours,  in  com 
parison  with  other  men's  labours,  and  other  labours 
of  your  own.  The  clergyman's  study,  which  some 
people  regard  as  they  would  a  pantry,  or  a  genteel 
appendage  to  housekeeping,  is  the  main  room  in  the 
house,  and  (if  consistent  with  Ileb.  xiii.  2)  ought  to 
be  the  best.  It  is  the  place  where  you  speak  to  God, 
and  where  God  speaks  to  you  ;  where  the  oil  is  beaten 
for  the  sanctuary  ;  where  you  sit  between  the  two 
olive-trees,  Zech.  iv.  3  ;  where  you  wear  the  linen 
ephod  and  consult  Urim  and  Tlmmmim.  As  you 
are  there,  so  will  you  be  in  the  house  of  the  Lord. 
A  prevalent  sense  of  this  will  do  more  than  any  thing 
to  procure  and  redeem  time  for  research,  and  will 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  119 

cause  you  to  learn  more  in  an  hour,  than  otherwise 
in  a  day.  That  upper-chamber  is  also  the  spot  where 
you  will  enjoy  one  of  the  most  valuable  means  of 
learning  and  preparation,  which  we  too  much  neglect 
— I  mean  conference  with  brethren  about  your  work, 
and  especially  your  preaching.  And  it  will  be  your 
duty  to  impress  on  your  people  the  truth,  that  you 
are  as  really  serving  them,  when  you  are  in  your 
study,  as  when  you  are  in  their  houses.  But  to 
render  these  views  efficacious,  you  must,  from  the  be 
ginning,  look  on  all  your  meditation,  reading  and 
writing,  as  a  tribute  to  God,  and  a  free-will  offering 
in  his  holy  temple.  This  will  lead  you  to  pray  over 
your  researches,  and  to  handle  every  topic  as  in  the 
presence  of  Christ.  It  will  tend  to  prevent  your 
lucubrations  from  lapsing  into  a  selfish,  solitary, 
anchoretic  abstraction  from  your  charge.  The  more 
you  are  occupied  upon  the  simple  text  of  Scrip 
ture,  the  more  remarkably  will  this  temper  prevail 
in  you. 

In  this,  as  in  every  thing  else,  there  is  economy 
of  time  in  punctuality  and  order :  as  Hannah  More 
says,  "  It  is  just  as  in  packing  a  trunk  ;  a  good  packer 
will  get  twice  as  much  in  as  a  bungler."  The  ex 
ample  of  Dr.  Doddridge  on  this  point,  as  recorded  in 
his  life,  is  worth  looking  at.  Lay  before  yourself 
some  scheme,  and  have  a  distinct  notion  of  what  you 


120  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

are  going  to  attempt.  This  is  like  the  builder's  work 
ing-model  ;  how  sadly  would  he  waste  his  timber 
and  his  time,  if  he  should  fall  to  hewing,  squaring, 
and  sawing,  without  any  clear  conception  of  what  he 
was  going  to  erect !  Allow  me  to  bring  this  matter 
a  little  more  closely  to  you,  by  proposing  the  follow 
ing  questions,  to  be  frankly  answered  by  you  on  the 
spot,  inforo  conscienticv.  1.  What  part  of  the  week 
do  I  devote  to  study  ;  and,  of  this,  how  much  to  the 
original  Scriptures  ?  2.  What  part  of  Scripture  am 
I  engaged  in  studying  critically  ?  3.  What  head 
of  theology  has  lately  been  under  investigation  ? 

4.  What  work  of  research  have  I  lately  mastered  ? 

5.  What  is  my  plan  of  study  for  the  coming  day  ?     I 
think  it  likely  that  there  are   some   young  pastors 
(and  in  none  of  these  letters  do  I  address  myself  to 
any  others)  who  may  find  in  these  queries  a  key  to 
their  meagre  attainments.     One  of  the  highest  objects 
proposed  in  this  correspondence,  is  to  afford  you  some 
assistance  in  chalking  out  your  work,  and  rendering 
manageable  the  great  business  of  clerical  study. 

But  after  all,  it  cannot  be  concealed  that  there 
will  be  need  of  vigorous  and  unceasing  efforts,  to  se 
cure  time  for  application,  and  to  cut  off  all  occasions 
of  sloth  and  waste.  You  will  be  under  a  perpetual 
attraction  to  leave  your  study.  The  obviously  press 
ing  claims  of  your  parish  will  pull  you  by  the  sleeve. 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  121 

You  will  find  it  indispensable  to  have  some  certain 
times  consecrated  to  tlie  word  of  God  and  prayer. 
The  best  proof  that  time  can  thus  be  rescued,  is  the 
fact  that  so  many  clergymen  engaged  in  laborious 
charges,  do  actually  spend  much  of  their  life  in 
study.  If  propriety  would  sanction  the  disclosure,  I 
could  easily  go  into  particulars,  and  give  the  names 
of  eminent  living  pastors,  with  the  laudable  devices 
by  which  they  compass  the  end  proposed.  One 
would  be  found  to  trench  largely  on  the  hours  of 
sleep  ;  a  method  scarcely  to  be  recommended.  An 
other  would  be  seen  rising,  year  after  year,  a  long 
time  before  day.  Some  are  known  to  me,  who  ac 
complish  all  their  heavy  study  before  noon.  A  dis 
tinguished  preacher  in  one  of  the  largest  churches, 
allows  no  interruptions  during  the  last  three  days  of 
the  week.  Two  others  have  chambers  attached  to 
their  churches,  where  they  do  not  encourage  visits, 
until  certain  hours.  It  is  not  for  me  to  choose  among 
these  methods,  nor  to  hold  up  my  own  as  equal  or 
superior.  In  nothing  is  it  more  important  for  a  man 
to  open  his  own  path,  than  in  habits  of  study.  As 
a  general  thing,  it  would  seem  to  be  well  (using 
Scott's  words)  "  to  break  the  neck  of  the  day's 
work,"  as  early  as  possible.  There  have  been  clergy 
men  of  great  eminence,  who  observed  no  certain 
hours.  Dr.  Payson  never  denied  himself  to  visitors  ; 


122  THOUGHTS   ON    PEE  ACHING. 

his  motto  was,  "  The  man  who  wants  to  see  me,  is 
the  man  I  want  to  see."  Such  was  also  the  practice 
of  the  late  Dr.  John  II.  Rice.  There  are  situations 
where  the  young  minister  is  constrained  to  act  in  this 
way.  "Where  we  cannot  get  the  whole  we  must  make 
vigilant  use  of  a  part.  Even  itinerants  may  gain 
knowledge ;  and  I  have  heard  eminent  scholars  say, 
that  nothing  they  ever  read  made  so  deep  impression 
on  them,  as  volumes  which  they  found  in  their  cham 
ber  window,  and  which  they  devoured  with  the 
greater  avidity,  because  they  doubted  whether  they 
should  ever  see  them  again.  Great  concentration  of 
mind  is  produced  by  such  traits.  John  "Wesley,  as 
his  journals  show,  perused  hundreds  of  volumes  on 
horseback ;  you  will  find  his  notices  of  books  in 
French,  Latin,  and  Greek.  Reading  on  horseback, 
though  from  no  such  necessity,  was  a  favourite  prac 
tice  of  the  late  Dr.  Speece,  who  was  a  Tielluo  librorum  / 
and  also  of  Dr.  Campbell,  of  Rockbridge,  whom  I 
may  name,  though  not  a  clergyman.  More  than 
twenty  years  ago,  when  I  was  much  in  the  saddle,  I 
was  on  a  tour  of  preaching  with  the  Rev.  Abner  "W. 
Clopton,  of  the  Baptist  church.  He  was  a  man  of 
much  learning,  and  of  such  ministerial  earnestness, 
that  it  was  commonly  said  that  he  preached  at  least 
three  hundred  and  sixty -five  sermons  in  the  year.  It 
was  summer  time,  and  I  observed,  that  after  an  early 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  123 

breakfast,  lie  would  take  liis  saddle-bags  and  retire 
into  the  shade  of  the  woods  for  about  three  hours. 
For  this  purpose  he  always  carried  a  volume  or  two  of 
solid  reading  ;  and  at  that  time  was  making  a  second 
forest-perusal  of  Dwight's  Theology.  By  such  de 
cision  and  self-denial,  some  men  counteract  all  the 
dissipating  tendencies  of  itinerancy,  while  they  are 
enjoying  its  unspeakable  advantages.  But  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  such  self-control  is  seldom  found,  except 
in  those  who  have  been  previously  subjected  to  most 
vigorous  scholastic  training.  Where  there  is  a  will, 
there  will  be  a  way  ;  and  the  resolved  purpose  to  be 
well  furnished  for  the  work  is  scarcely  ever  frustrated. 
But  to  carry  out  such  a  purpose,  you  must  avoid  a 
thousand  things,  to  which,  at  your  age,  you  will  be 
tempted,  and  which  consume  time  and  preclude  habits 
of  application. 

Providence  so  orders  it,  that  generally  speaking, 
the  young  pastor  has  a  small  charge.  This  is  some 
times  mortifying ;  but  it  aifords  invaluable  opportu 
nities  for  study,  and  so  fits  him  for  subsequent  la 
bours,  where  he  can  scarcely  call  an  hour  his  own. 
There  are  many  other  respects,  in  which  it  is  of  vast 
moment  to  let  the  character  grow  up  and  take  its 
settled  form,  in  the  shade  of  retirement.  The  danger 
is  (and  it  ought  to  be  fully  before  your  mind)  that 
jou  will  use  no  more  study  than  is  necessary  to  meet 


124:  THOUGHTS    ON    PKE  ACHING. 

the  moderate  demands  of  your  little  rural  congrega 
tion  ;  if  you  yield  to  this,  it  may  be  safely  predicted, 
that  you  will  never  rise  above  the  stature  you  have 
already  attained. 

On  these  subjects,  much  is  to  be  learned  from 
men  of  other  professions  ;  and  I  have  frequently  been 
struck  with  the  analogy  between  the  busy  lawyer's 
life  and  ours.  In  this  respect,  the  maxims  of  the  late 
Charles  Butler,  Esq.,  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  are  worthy  of 
being  transcribed  ;  especially  as  in  addition  to  large 
practice,  and  copious  legal  authorship,  he  published 
a  number  of  works  on  general  literature  and  religion. 
You  will  make  the  necessary  modifications  to  adapt 
it  to  clerical  life.  Butler  ascribes  his  saving  of  time 
to  these  rules  :  "  Yery  early  rising — a  systematic  di 
vision  of  his  time — absence  from  all  company  and 
from  all  diversions  not  likely  to  amuse  him  highly— 
from  reading,  writing,  or  even  thinking,  on  modern 
party-politics — and,  above  all,  never  permitting  a  bit 
or  scrap  of  time  to  be  unemployed — have  supplied 
him  with  an  abundance  of  literary  hours.  His  liter 
ary  acquisitions  are  principally  owing  to  the  rigid 
observance  of  four  rules  :  1.  To  direct  his  attention 
to  one  literary  topic  only  at  a  time ;  2.  To  read  the 
best  book  upon  it,  consulting  others  as  little  as  possi 
ble  ;  3.  "Where  the  subject  was  contentious,  to  read 
the  best  book  on  each  side ;  4.  To  find  out  men  of 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  125 

information,  and,  when  in  their  society,  to  listen,  not 
to  talk."  "  It  is  pleasant  to  him  to  reflect,  that 
though  few  have  exceeded  him  in  the  love  01  litera 
ture,  or  pursued  it  with  greater  delight,  it  never  se 
duced,  or  was  suspected  by  his  professional  friends  of 
seducing  him,  for  one  moment,  from  professional 
duty."  *  Here  let  me  leave  you  for  the  present,  con 
vinced  that  nothing  impracticable  is  required  of  you, 
which  I  hope  will  be  still  more  fully  sustained  by  my 
next  letter,  which  will  be  one  of  facts. 


LETTER  VI. 

LEARNED    PASTORS. 

THE  early  Reformers  and  later  Nonconformists 
were  fond  of  dwelling  on  the  distinction  between  the 
Pastor  and  the  Doctor  ;  and  the  early  New  England 
churches  had  both :  as  early  indeed  as  the  Second 
Book  of  Discipline,  the  proper  place  was  assigned  to 
the  schoolmaster  and  the  professor.f  It  ought  to  be 

*  Butler's  Reminiscences,  p.  8. 

f  "Under  the  name  and  office  of  a  doctor,  we  comprehend  also 
the  order  in  schooles,  colledges,  and  universities,  quhilk  lies  bene  from 
tyme  to  tyme  carefullie  maintainit,  als  weill  amang  the  Jewes  and 
Christians,  as  amangs  the  prophane  nations." — Sec  Book  of  D.  ch. 
v.  §4. 


126  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

a  matter  of  devout  thankfulness  that  God  has  in 
every  age  dispensed  to  his  Church  both  kinds  of  gifts ; 
and  that  while  some  have  been  eminent  for  the  cure 
of  souls,  others  have  been  as  signally  fitted  for  the 
didactic  part.  Yet  the  error  would  be  egregious,  if 
you  should  think  that  the  ordinary  duties  of  the  la 
borious  pastor  are  incompatible  with  the  pursuit  of 
learning.  It  is  my  present  purpose  to  name  some 
men  who  have  remarkably  united  the  two  :  out  of 
a  great  number,  I  am  forced  by  economy  of  space  to 
select  a  few. 

Passing  by  Augustine  and  the  early  Reformers, 
as  instances  familiar  to  you,  let  me  come  to  later 
times.  I  have  before  me  the  works  of  EGBERT  BOLTON, 
in  five  quartos.  They  are  purely  theological,  prac 
tical,  and  experimental,  and  full  of  masculine  elo 
quence.  The  margin  is  studded  with  citations  from 
classics,  fathers,  and  scholastics,  in  the  ancient 
tongues.  Bolton  is  often  quoted  by  Baxter  and 
Flavel.  He  was  probably  the  most  powerful  and 
awakening  preacher  of  his  day,  and  greatly  blessed 
to  the  conversion  of  sinners.  He  wore  himself  out 
with  almost  daily  preaching,  and  the  same  patience 
which  led  him  to  transcribe  the  whole  of  Homer  and 
comment  on  the  whole  of  Aquinas  was  manifest  in 
the  perpetual  labours  of  his  parish.  BATES  needs  no 
commendation  of  his  piety,  his  eloquence,  or  his 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTEKS.  127 

learning :  the  point  to  be  observed  is,  that  he  spent 
his  life  in  ministerial  duty  ;  in  his  later  years  at  Hack 
ney,  where  he  was  a  predecessor  of  Matthew  Henry. 
His  works  evince  as  well  his  erudition  as  his  pastoral 
zeal.  JOHN  OWEN  and  RICHARD  BAXTER,  whose  works 
by  themselves  make  a  library,  were  working  pastors, 
through  as  much  of  their  life  as  wras  allowed  to  them 
from  persecution.  Owen  was  about  five  years  Vice- 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  but  was  even 
then  by  no  means  without  charge.  But  his  great 
ministerial  attainments  were  made  while  he  was  con 
stantly  exercising  his  ministry.  The  name  of  Baxter 
is  inseparably  associated  with  his  parish  of  Kidder 
minster.  To  look  at  his  controversial  works,  over 
laden  with  enormous  quotations  from  Chrysostom, 
Jerome,  Hales,  Scotus,  the  Reformers,  and  the  very 
Jesuits,  you  would  say  he  was  never  out  of  his  study : 
to  look  at  his  preachings,  catechizings,  visits,  and  im 
prisonments,  you  would  say  he  was  never  in  it.  His 
"  Reformed  Pastor  "  shows  his  standard  in  regard  to 
pastoral  fidelity ;  he  probably  came  as  near  to  it  as 
men  ever  do  to  their  standards.  JOHN  HOWE,  the 
least  scholastic  and  most  philosophic,  if  not  angelic, 
of  the  Puritans,  carried  on  his  amazing  researches 
pari  passu  with  his  pulpit  and  parish  routine.  He 
was  very  early  settled  at  Great  Torrington,  in  Devon 
shire,  where  he  remained  until  his  ejectment.  You 


128          THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

perhaps  remember  his  Latin  correspondence,  his  man 
ner  of  keeping  fast-days  with  his  people,  the  favour 
which  he  had  with  Cromwell,  and  his  trials.  Late  in  life 
he  preached  in  the  metropolis.  He  was  extraordinary 
as  an  extemporaneous  speaker,  even  in  a  day  when 
that  mode  was  prevalent.  Notwithstanding  his  per 
secutions  and  frequent  removals,  he  managed  to  ac 
cumulate  vast  learning,  without  being  any  thing  but 
a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  CHARNOCK  deserves  to  be 
named  here.  Less  popular  as  a  preacher,  he  was 
equal  as  a  scholar  to  those  just  mentioned ;  being 
versed  in  every  part  of  learning,  especially  in  the 
originals  of  the  Scripture.  He  was  indefatigable  with 
his  pen,  and  was  one  of  those  who  confined  himself 
almost  entirely  to  his  study.  But  he  still  preaches 
by  his  works.  EDMUND  CALAMY  is  famous,  as  one  of 
the  authors  of  Smectymnuus,  written  in  answer  to 
Bishop  Hall's  Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy  :  the  title 
indicates  the  writers'  names,  by  their  initials,  viz., 
S.  Marshal,  E.  Calamy,  T.  Young,  M.  Newcomen, 
"W.  Spurstow.  No  London  preacher  was  favoured  by 
greater  crowds,  and  that  for  twenty  years  :  as  many 
as  sixty  coaches  were  sometimes  drawn  up  at  his 
church.  But  he  had  not  attained  his  fulness  of  prep 
aration,  without  some  pains.  While  chaplain  to 
Bishop  Eelton,  he  studied  sixteen  hours  a  day  ;  read 
over  all  Bellarmine  and  his  answers  ;  read  the  school- 


LETTEKS   TO   YOUNG-   MINISTERS.  129 

men,  particular  Thomas  Aquinas ;  and  perused  the 
works  of  Augustine  five  times.  Need  I  assert  the 
diligence  or  erudition  of  MATTHEW  POOL  ?  Look  at 
his  tall  folios,  especially  his  Synopsis  Criticorum, 
the  fruit  of  ten  years'  toil,  during  which  he  used  to 
rise  at  three  and  four  o'clock.  Yet  in  the  evenings, 
he  could  be  "  exceedingly,  but  innocently  merry,  very 
much  diverting  both  himself  and  the  company."  He 
was  pastor  of  St.  Michaels',  London,  fourteen  years, 
till  the  Bartholomews'  Day,  and  was  a  laborious 
preacher.  TUCKNEY  is  memorable  as  the  principal 
writer  of  the  Shorter  Catechism.  He  was  for  a  time 
in  Boston,  as  Mr.  Cotton's  assistant,  and  afterwards 
in  St.  Michaels',  just  named.  When  ejected,  he  had 
become  master  of  St.  John's,  Cambridge.  Calamy 
relates,  in  regard  to  the  college  elections,  that  Tuck- 
ney  used  to  say,  "  No  one  shall  have  greater  regard 
to  the  truly  godly  than  I ;  but  I  am  determined  to 
choose  none  but  scholars :  they  may  deceive  me  in 
their  godliness,  but  in  their  scholarship  they  cannot." 
How  could  I  have  postponed  to  this  place  dear 
JOHN  FLAVEL  ?  No  one  needs  to  be  told  how  pious, 
how  faithful,  how  tender,  how  rich,  how  full  of 
unction,  are  his  works.  In  no  writer  have  the  highest 
truths  of  religion  been  more  remarkably  brought 
down  to  the  lowest  capacity  ;  yet  with  no  sinking  of 
the  doctrine,  and  with  a  perpetual  sparkle  and  zest,  be- 
6* 


130  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

longing  to  the  most  generous  liquor.  It  lias  always 
been  a  wonder  to  me,  how  Flavel  could  maintain 
such  simplicity  and  naivete,  and  such  childlike  and 
almost  frolicksome  grace,  amidst  the  multiform  studies 
which  he  pursued.  I  can  account  for  it  only  by  his 
having  been  constantly  among  the  people,  in  actual 
duty  as  a  pastor.  Opening  one  of  his  volumes,  at 
random,  I  find  quotations,  often  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
and  in  the  order  here  annexed,  from  Cicero,  Pope 
Adrian,  Plato,  Chrysostom,  Horace,  Ovid,  Luther, 
Bernard,  Claudian,  Menander,  and  Petronius.  His 
residence  at  Dartmouth  would  afford  a  multitude  of 
pastoral  instances,  if  this  were  our  present  object. 

JOSEPH  CARYL,  the  voluminous  commentator  on 
Job,  w^as  a  preacher  in  London,  as  far  as  the  intoler 
ance  of  the  times  permitted.  The  same  church  was 
served  by  Dr.  John  Owen,  David  Clarkson,  Dr. 
Chauncy,  Dr.  "Watts,  and  Dr.  Savage.  THOMAS  GOOD 
WIN  was  one  of  the  greater  Puritan  divines ;  re 
corded  in  the  University-register  at  Oxford,  as  "  in 
scriptis  in  re  theologica  quamplurimis  orbi  notus." 
Living  in  days  of  tribulation,  he  was  more  migratory 
than  he  could  have  wished  ;  but  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  was  his  great  work.  At  first  he  sought  the 
praise  of  learned  elegance,  but  "  in  the  end,"  says  he, 
"  this  project  of  wit  and  vainglory  was  wholly  sunk 
in  my  heart,  and  I  left  all,  and  have  continued  in  that 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  131 

purpose  and  practice  these  three-score  years ;  and  I 
never  was  so  much  as  tempted  to  put  into  a  sermon 
my  own  withered  flowers  that  I  had  gathered,  and 
valued  more  than  diamonds,  but  have  preached  what 
I  thought  was  truly  edifying,  either  for  conversion  of 
souls,  or  bringing  them  up  to  eternal  life." 

Other  less  noted  ministers  there  were  among  the 
Nonconformists,  known  on  earth  for  their  learning, 
and  in  heaven  for  their  converting  of  sinners  from  the 
error  of  their  ways.  Such  a  man  was  PETER  VINKE, 
of  London,  memorialized  in  a  funeral  sermon  by  John 
Howe.  He  was  a  universal  scholar.  His  latinity 
was  celebrated,  and  he  kept  constant  journals  in  the 
Latin  tongue.  But  yet  more  remarkable  was  he  for 
humble,  painful,  affectionate,  gospel  labour.  "  From 
his  memorials,  it  appears  that  he  was  much  in  ad 
miring  God  for  what  he  had  done  for  him  and  his, 
especially  for  assisting  him  in  his  ministerial  work, 
and  particularly  at  the  Lord's  Supper."  Some  place 
ought  to  be  given  to  JOHN  QUICKE,  author  of  the 
Synodicon,  which  is  even  now  one  of  the  best  re 
positories  of  facts,  respecting  the  Reformed  Church 
in  France.  He  was  a  good  scholar  and  an  animated 
and  successful  preacher.  In  his  days  of  health,  he 
used  to  be  in  his  study  at  2  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
He  was  greatly  concerned  for  the  persecuted  Hugue 
nots,  and  zealous  for  the  upholding  of  a  learned  minis- 


132  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

try.  He  loved  preaching  so  well  that  he  was  seized 
in  the  pulpit,  in  1663,  and  made  long  trial  of  prison 
fare.  Yet  when  a  cavalier-justice  threatened  him 
with  a  distant  gaol,  Quicke  replied,  "  I  know  not 
where  you  are  sending  me,  "but  this  I  am  sure  of,  my 
heart  is  as  full  of  comfort  as  it  can  hold."  GEORGE 
HUGHES,  of  Plymouth,  was  one  who  united  successful 
study  with  constant  evangelical  activity.  He  was 
indefatigable  in  his  ministerial  work,  and  much  de 
voted  to  the  private  exercises  of  piety.  He  preached 
twice  the  Sabbath  before  he  died,  being  sixty-four 
years  of  age.  In  a  period,  when  learned  men  were 
not  scarce,  Mr.  Hughes  had  the  reputation  of  being 
an  admirable  critic  and  expositor,  and  well  acquainted 
with  every  part  of  theology.  Baxter  considered  his 
Aaron's  Rod  Blossoming,  as  one  of  the  best  books  on 
affliction.  Here  might  be  mentioned  Gouge,  Truman, 
Williams,  the  Henrys  and  the  Mathers ;  but  I  will 
close  my  list  of  Puritans,  properly  so  called,  with  the 
name  of  good  Mr.  JESSEY,  the  Baptist,  whose  quaint 
visage,  with  beard,  bands,  and  Geneva-cap,  adorns 
the  Nonconformist's  Memorial.  Besides  constant  la 
bours  in  the  ministry,  he  was  much  concerned  about 
bringing  out  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible  ;  for  he 
was  a  proficient  in  Hebrew,  Syriac,  and  the  Rabbins. 
For  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  it  is  a  singular  fact 
that  Mr.  Jessey  had  such  regard  for  the  poor  Jews  at 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  133 

Jerusalem,  that  lie  collected  for  them,  and  transmitted 
to  Palestine  £300,  and  with  this  sent  letters  to  win 
them  over  to  Christianity.  The  inscription  which  he 
put  over  his  study-door  has  often  been  copied  : 

AMICE,  QUISQUE  HUG  ADES ; 
AUT  AGITO  FAUCIS;  AUT  ABI: 
AUT  ME  LABORANTEM  ADJUVA. 

The  grace  of  God  did  not  leave  our  Scottish  fore 
fathers  without  some  striking  examples  of  parochial 
studies  and  successes.  The  value  which  they  set 
upon  ministerial  learning  is  inscribed  on  the  constitu 
tion  of  our  Church.  It  could  not  be  otherwise,  where 
the  foundations  were  laid  by  such  hands  as  those  of 
Knox,  Buchanan,  and  the  Melvills.  There  is  no 
modern  satiric  verse  in  Latin,  more  resembling  the 
most  biting  of  Catullus,  than  the  Franciscanus  of 
Buchanan,  and  sundry  memorable  epigrams  of  An 
drew  Melvill.  JOHN  How,  of  Perth,  lived  in  times 
of  disquietude,  and  is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  un 
common  experiences ;  yet  we  must  not  forget,  that 
the  youth  who  boarded  with  him,  spoke  nothing  but 
Latin,  and  that  the  lesson  of  Scripture  read  before 
and  after  meals,  was  always  either  Hebrew  or  Greek. 
JOHN  McBiRNiE  "  used  a  ways  to  have,  when  he  rode, 
two  Bibles  hanging  at  a  leathern  girdle  about  his 
middle,  the  one  original,  the  other  English."  When 


134:  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

JAMES  MELYILL  was  dying,  lie  repeated  a  number  of 
the  Psalms  in  Hebrew.  ROBERT  BRUCE,  that  saintly 
preacher,  favoured  beyond  most  with  near  approaches 
to  God  in  prayer,  and  marvellous  power  in  awaken 
ing  sinners  ;  and  whose  life  you  ought  to  examine  in 
detail,  thus  speaks  of  himself  in  old  age  : — "  I  have 
been  a  continued  student,  and  I  hope  I  may  say  it 
without  offence,  that  he  is  not  within  the  isle  of 
Britain,  of  my  age,  that  takes  greater  pains  upon  his 
Bible."  But  he  understood  Luther's  ~bene  ordsse. 
John  Livingstone  was  one  morning  at  Mr.  Bruce's 
house,  when  he  came  out  of  his  closet  with  his  face 
swollen  with  weeping  ;  he  had  been  praying  for  Dr. 
Alexander  Leighton,  who  was  pilloried  in  London, 
and  for  himself  that  he  had  not  been  counted  worthy 
to  suffer.  In  his  public  prayers,  "  every  sentence  was 
a  strong  bolt  shot  up  to  heaven."  Of  his  success, 
Didoclavius  says,  "  Plura  animarum  millia  Christo 
lucrifecit."  DAVID  DICKSON'S  name  is  a  precious 
ointment  in  Scotland.  He  was  exceedingly  blessed 
in  an  age  of  wonderful  revivals.  Multitudes  were 
convinced  and  converted  by  his  means  while  he  was 
at  Irvine,  to  which  place  they  nocked  from  a  great 
distance  around.  He  was  an  active  and  fearless 
member  of  the  General  Assemblies  of  that  stormy 
time.  The  Sum  of  Saving  Knowledge  was  dictated 
by  him  and  his  friend  Mr.  Durham.  He  was  the 


LETTERS    TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  135 

author  of  the  hymn,  "  O  Mother  dear,  Jerusalem," 
which  has  since  suffered  so  many  garblings  and 
transformations.  When  dying,  he  was  asked  by  Mr. 
Livingstone,  how  he  found  himself.  He  replied,  "  I 
have  taken  all  my  good  deeds,  and  all  my  bad  deeds, 
and  cast  them  through  each  other  in  a  heap  before 
the  Lord,  and  fled  from  both,  and  betaken  myself  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  him  I  have  sweet 
peace."  Dickson  was  the  author  of  several  learned 
works ;  one  of  these,  Therapeutica  Sacra,  is  a  quarto 
volume,  in  the  Latin  language.  In  his  latter  years, 
he  was  professor  of  theology  at  Glasgow. * 

WILLIAM  GUTHKIE,  author  of  the  Christian's  Great 
Interest,  was  one  of  the  most  graceful,  elegant,  accom 
plished,  and  commanding  preachers  that  Scotland 
ever  possessed.  He  belonged  to  a  small  class  of  men 
who  have  blended  eminent  devotion  with  charms  of 
manner.  Far  from  being  a  recluse,  he  excelled  in 
manly  exercises,  induged  in  angling,  fowling,  and 
hurling  on  the  ice,  by  which  he  maintained  vigorous 
health.  To  say  that  he  was  admired  and  loved  by 
Rutherford,  is  almost  enough.  His  prayers  were 
such  that  whole  assemblies  were  melted  into  tears. 
Of  his  authorship,  Dr.  Owen  once  said,  pulling  out  a 
little  gilded  copy  of  the  Great  Interest,  "  That  author 

*  Select  Biog.  Wodrow  Soc.  vol.  ii.  p.  114. 


136  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

I  take  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  divines  that  ever 
wrote ;  it  is  my  vade-mecum,  and  I  carry  it  and  the 
Sedan  New  Testament,  still  about  with  me.  I  have 
written  several  folios,  but  there  is  more  divinity  in  it 
than  in  them  all."  Guthrie  laboured  most  of  his  life 
in  one  place,  and  with  such  success,  that  there  were 
hardly  any  in  his  charge  who  were  not  brought  to  a 
profession  of  faith  and  the  worship  of  God  in  their 
families.  His  favourite  employment  was  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  which  he  read  much  in  the  original. 
Next  to  Guthrie  I  must  mention  SAMUEL  RUTHERFORD  ; 
but  how  shall  I  mention  him  ?  Christians  of  the 
present  day,  knowing  him  chiefly  by  his  letters, 
which  glow  with  heavenly  love,  scarcely  remember 
that  he  was  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  age. 
Indeed,  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  he  was  greater  as  a 
pastor  or  an  author.  Pie  was  professor  as  well  as 
preacher.  He  commonly  rose  about  three  in  the 
morning.  He  spent  all  his  time  either  in  prayer,  or 
reading  and  writing,  or  visiting  families.  His  works 
are  numerous,  learned,  and  argumentative,  both  in 
Latin  and  English.  Read  his  Letters ;  they  will 
prove  to  you  that  great  study  need  not  quench  the 
flame  of  devotion.  "  Rutherford's  Letters,"  says  Mr. 
Cecil,  "  is  one  of  my  classics.  Were  truth  the  beam, 
I  have  no  doubt,  that  if  Homer,  and  Yirgil,  and 
Horace,  and  all  that  the  world  has  agreed  to  idolize, 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  137 

were  weighed  against  that  book,  they  would  be  lighter 
than  vanity.     He  is  a  real  original."  "* 

The  whole  space  allotted  to  this  letter  would  be 
little  enough  -for  speaking  of  GEOKGE  GILLESPIE.  It 
is  the  common  opinion  of  Presbyterians,  that  taking 
his  learning  and  eloquence  in  connexion  with  his 
youth,  Gillespie  must  be  regarded  as  a  prodigy.  He 
accompanied  Henderson  and  Baillie  to  the  "West 
minster  Assembly,  in  which  body,  notwithstanding 
his  youth,  he  shone  as  a  distinguished  light.  His 
learning  was  extraordinary,  for  exactness  as  well  as 
compass,  and  in  debate  he  joined  the  highest  inspira 
tion  to  the  most  complete  scholastic  training.  Still 
he  was  the  humble,  pious  preacher,  relying  on  his 
God,  as  well  in  the  disputation  as  the  sermon.  The 
members  of  the  Assembly  usually  kept  little  books, 
in  which  to  note  the  arguments  to  be  answered,  and 
the  heads  of  their  speeches ;  but  when  Gillespie's 
book  was  looked  into,  it  was  found  to  contain  only 
such  entries  as  these  :  "  Lord,  send  light !  Lord,  give 
assistance  !  Lord,  defend  thine  own  cause !  "  If  you 
would  be  convinced  of  his  learning,  read  his  masterly 
and  famous  work,  against  the  Erastians,  entitled 
Aaron's  Rod  Blossoming.  It  is  no  vain  boast,  when 
he  says  of  this  book  in  his  preface  :  "  As  I  have  not 

*  Rutherford  was  called  to  a  professorship  in  Utrecht,  as  Ames 
had  long  before  been  to  one  in  Franeker. 


138  THOUGHTS  ON  PEEACHING. 

dealt  with  their  nauci,  but  with  their  nucleus,  I  have 
not  scratched  at  their  shell,  but  taken  out  their  kernel, 
(such  as  it  is,)  I  have  not  declined  them,  but  encoun 
tered,  yea,  sought  them  out  where  their  strength  was 
greatest,  where  their  arguments  were  hardest,  and 
their  exceptions  most  probable ;  so  no  man  may  de 
cline  or  dissemble  the  strength  of  my  arguments,  in 
ferences,  authorities,  answers,  and  replies,  nor  think 
it  enough  to  lift  up  an  axe  against  the  outermost 
branches,  when  he  ought  to  strike  at  the  root."  He 
speaks  of  the  time  bestowed  on  this  most  weighty  and 
seasonable  work,  as  gained  with  difficulty  from  his 
parochial  cares.  This  list  might  be  easily  increased. 
There  was  HALYBTJETON,  noted  as  a  deeply  experienced 
believer  and  a  devoted  preacher,  as  well  as  a  student, 
theologian,  and  author.  There  was  THOMAS  BOSTON, 
thought  of  generally,  in  connexion  with  his  sermons 
and  his  Fourfold  State,  but  who  also  wrote  the  Trac- 
tatus  Stigmologicus,  a  quarto  on  the  Hebrew  accents, 
and  was  a  consummate  biblical  scholar.  In  later 
days  we  have  had  the  EKSKINES,  MACLAUETN",  and 
"WmiEKSPOON,  whose  reputation  as  a  man  of  learning 
was  formed  before  he  left  his  pastoral  charge. 

If  my  knowledge  extended  a  little  more  into  the 
Reformed  Churches  of  France  and  Holland,  I  might 
doubtless  add  to  these  examples.  One  thing  is  cer 
tain,  the  great  scholars  and  great  authors  of  these 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  139 

countries,  whether  professors  or  pastors,  were  men 
laden  with  the  burden  of  preaching.  If  my  memory 
fails  me  not,  the  celebrated  BOCHART,  a  polyglot  of 
erudition,  was  the  minister  of  a  small  church.  At  and 
after  the  time  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  (the  most  bril 
liant  era  of  Reformed  theology,)  learning  wTas  dili 
gently  cultivated  by  private  pastors.  The  late  Dr. 
LIVINGSTON,  a  pupil  of  DE  MOOR,  may  be  taken  as  a 
specimen,  in  this  respect,  of  what  was  considered 
ministerial  training  in  Holland,  a  century  ago. 

Our  own  country  abounds  in  examples  of  minis 
terial  learning.  We  speak  of  President  Edwards ; 
but  how  short  a  time  was  he  president !  His  stores 
of  knowledge  were  treasured  while  he  was  at  North 
ampton  and  Stockbridge  ;  w^here,  as  a  descendant  re 
lated  to  me,  he  did  not  know  his  own  cows,  and  was 
so  stingy  of  his  time,  as  to  wait  in  his  study  till  the 
very  instant  when  dinner  was  served  in  the  ad 
joining  room,  and  always  retired  to  his  books  the 
moment  he  had  finished  his  sparing  meal :  a  practice 
to  be  condemned  without  hesitation.  I  need  not  re 
call  to  you  the  men  whose  names  are  familiar,  as 
having  lived  nearer  to  our  own  times,  such  as  DICKIN 
SON,  WADDEL,  MASON,  TViLSON,  GREEN,  RICE,  SPEECE, 
HOGE,  and  MATTHEWS.  If  it  were  proper,  I  could 
still  more  easily  record  the  names  of  clergymen  still 
living,  who  add  to  the  constant  labours  of  the  minis- 


140  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

try,  regular  and  persistent  efforts  to  discipline  the 
understanding  and  enrich  the  heart  by  private  study. 
It  is  with  the  humble  hope  of  stimulating  you  to  at 
tempt  the  like  that  I  have  collected  the  materials  of 
this  somewhat  fragmentary  letter. 


LETTER  VII. 

ON   EXTEMPORANEOUS    PREACHING. 

You  desire  some  information  from  me  about  ex 
temporaneous  preaching.  Before  I  throw  on  paper 
my  desultory  thoughts,  I  beg  leave  to  premise  that 
you  must  expect  nothing  from  me  in  the  spirit  of 
those  censors  who,  in  the  language  of  King  James's 
translators,  "  give  liking  unto  nothing  but  what  is 
framed  by  themselves,  and  hammered  on  their  own 
anvil."  After  about  thirty  years  of  talking  for  my 
Master,  often  in  a  method  ex  tempore  enough  to  satisfy 
the  most  rigorous,  I  cannot  forget  that  there  have 
been  other  anvils  before  mine,  and  that  their  work 
has  been  turned  off  by  such  workmen  as  Edwards, 
Davies,  and  Chalmers.  I  am  not  ready  to  say  that 
their  "  reading  "  was  no  "  preaching."  This  prefatory 
disclaimer  will  embolden  me  to  use  some  freedom  in 
recommending  the  method  of  free  utterance. 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  141 

You  have  expressed  fears  as  to  your  ever  becom 
ing  an  extemporaneous  preacher,  and  I  shall  confine 
myself  to  practical  advices.  Many  who  have  excelled 
in  this  may  have  had  fears  like  yours.  My  counsel 
is,  that  you  boldly  face  the  obstacles,  and  begin  ex 
dbrupto.  The  longer  you  allow  yourself  to  become 
fixed  in  another  and  exclusive  habit,  the  greater  will 
be  your  difficulty  in  throwing  it  aside.  Some  of  the 
authors  whom  I  respect  and  shall  quote  below,  rec 
ommend  a  beginning  by  gradual  approaches ;  such 
as  committing  to  memory  a  part,  and  then  going  on 
from  that  impulse.  This  is  what  Cicero  illustrates 
by  the  fine  comparison  of  a  boat  which  is  propelled 
by  its  original  impulse,  and  comes  up  to  the  shore 
even  when  the  oars  are  taken  in.  Others  tell  you  to 
throw  in  passages  extemporaneously  amidst  your 
written  materials  ;  as  one  who  swims  with  corks,  but 
occasionally  leaves  them.  Doubtless  many  have  prof 
ited  by  such  devices ;  yet  if  called  on  to  prescribe 
the  very  best  method,  I  should  not  prescribe  these. 
Again,  therefore,  I  say,  begin  at  once.  When  a  friend 
of  mine,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Benjamin  "West,  once  in 
quired  of  the  celebrated  Gilbert  Stuart,  then  at  work 
in  London,  how  young  persons  should  be  taught  to 
paint,  he  replied  :  "  Just  as  puppies  are  taught  to 
swim — CHUCK  THEM  IN  !  "  ISTo  one  learns  to  swim  in 
the  sea  of  preaching  without  going  into  the  water. 


142  THOUGHTS   ON   PEE  ACHING. 

Such  observation  as  I  have  been  able  to  employ 
suggests  the  following  reason  for  the  advice  which  I 
am  giving  yon.  The  whole  train  of  operations  is  dif 
ferent  in  reading  or  reciting  a  discourse  and  in  pro 
nouncing  it  extempore.  If  I  may  borrow  a  figure  from 
engines,  the  mind  is  geared  differently.  ~No  man  goes 
from  one  track  to  the  other  without  a  painful  jog  at 
the  "  switch."  And  this  is,  I  suppose,  the  reason 
why  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  a  passage  which  I  reserve  for 
you,  cautions  his  students  against  every  attempt  to 
mingle  reading  with  free  speaking.  It  is  not  unlike 
trying  to  speak  in  two  languages,  which  reminds  me 
of  what  a  learned  friend  once  observed  to  me  in  Paris, 
concerning  the  Cardinal  Mezzofanti ;  that  this  won 
derful  linguist,  when  he  left  one  of  his  innumerable 
tongues  to  speak  in  another,  always  made  a  little 
pause  and  wet  his  lips,  as  if  to  make  ready  for  going 
over  all  at  once.  It  requires  the  practice  of  years  to 
dovetail  an  extemporaneous  paragraph  gracefully  into 
a  written  sermon. 

As  I  am  perfectly  convinced  that  any  man  can 
learn  to  preach  extempore  who  can  talk  extempore, 
always  provided  that  he  has  somewhat  to  say,  my 
earnest  advice  to  you  is  that  you  never  make  the  at 
tempt  without  being  sure  of  your  matter.  Of  all  the 
defects  of  utterance  I  have  ever  known  the  most 
serious  is  having  nothing  to  utter.  You  will  say  that 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  143 

is  not  extemporaneous  which  is  prepared,  and,  ety- 
mologically,  you  are  doubtless  right.  But  the  purely 
impromptu  method,  or  the  taking  of  a  text  ad  aper- 
turam  libri,  is  that  towards  which  I  shall  give  you 
no  help,  as  believing  it  to  be  the  worst  method  possi 
ble  ;  for  however  suddenly  you  may  ever  be  called 
upon  to  preach,  you  will  choose  to  fall  back  to  a  cer 
tain  extent,  upon  some  train  of  thought  which  you 
have  previously  matured.  In  all  your  experiments, 
therefore,  secure  by  premeditation  a  good  amount  of 
material,  and  let  it  be  digested  and  arranged  in  your 
head,  according  to  an  exact  partition  and  a  logical 
concatenation.  The  more  completely  this  latter  pro 
vision  is  attended  to,  the  less  will  be  the  danger  of 
losing  your  self-possession  or  your  chain  of  ideas.  I 
lay  the  more  stress  on  this  because  it  must  commend 
itself  to  you  as  having  a  just  and  rational  basis. 
Common  sense  must  admit  that  the  great  thing  is  to 
have  the  matter.  All  speaking  which  does  not  pre 
suppose  this  is  a  sham.  And  of  method,  the  same 
may  be  observed  with  regard  to  the  speaker  which  is 
enjoined  by  all  judicious  teachers  with  regard  to  the 
hearer,  namely,  that  even  if  divisions  and  subdivisions 
are  not  formally  announced,  they  should  be  clearly 
before  the  mind,  as  affording  a  most  important  clue 
in  the  remembrance  of  what  has  been  prepared. 

Early  extemporaneous  efforts  are  frequently  made 


144:  THOUGHTS  ON   PREACHING. 

futile  or  injurious  by  the  unwise  selection  of  a  topic. 
The  opprobrium  of  this  mode  of  preaching  is  the 
empty  rant  of  some  who  use  it.  Preachers  there  are 
who  have  mighty  vociferation,  extreme  volubility, 
highly  coloured  diction,  and  glorious  pageantry  of 
metaphor,  but  who  prove  nothing,  teach  nothing,  and 
effect  nothing.  Inexperienced  speakers  fancy  that 
they  shall  have  most  to  say  upon  a  sentimental,  an 
imaginative,  or  a  hortatory  topic.  There  is  a  snare  in 
this.  The  more  special  the  subject,  the  richer  will  be 
the  flow  of  thought :  let  me  recommend  to  you  two 
classes  of  subjects  above  all  others,  for  your  early  at 
tempts — first,  exposition  of  the  Scripture  text,  and 
secondly,  the  proof  of  some  theological  point.  Argu 
mentative  discourse  is  best  fitted  to  open  the  fountains 
of  speech  in  one  whose  words  flow  scantily.  There  is 
no  one  fit  to  speak  at  all  who  does  not  grow  warm  in 
debate.  And  still  more  specially  confutation  of  error 
is  adapted  to  promote  self-possession,  which,  as  we  shall 
see,  is  a  prime  quality  in  extempore  speaking. 

It  is  hardly  possible  for  any  man  to  produce  valu 
able  matter  in  a  purely  academical  exercise.  Hence 
it  is  all-important  to  practise  bona  fide  preaching  be 
fore  a  real  audience.  All  pretences  there  vanish ; 
there  is  an  object  to  be  gained  ;  and  the  true  springs 
of  preaching  are  unsealed.  This  is  the  discipline  by 
which  all  great  extemporaneous  speakers  have  reached 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  145 

facility  and  eminence.  You  cannot  do  better,  there 
fore,  than  to  seek  some  humble  by-place  where  souls 
are  desiring  salvation,  there  to  pour  into  their  uncritical 
ears  the  truths  which,  I  trust,  burn  in  your  heart.  I 
can  warrant  you  that  a  few  weeks  of  exhortation  to 
awakened  sinners  will  show  you  the  use  of  your  weap 
ons  in  this  kind.  Revivals  of  religion  always  train 
up  off-hand  speakers.  It  was  my  privilege  to  be 
early  acquainted  with  the  late  Dr.  Nettleton.  I 
heard  him  in  most  favourable  circumstances  in  Pitts- 
iield,  four-and-thirty  years  ago,  and  again  at  two  later 
periods.  Though  one  of  the  most  solid,  textual,  and 
methodical  speakers,  he  usually  laid  no  paper  before 
him.  His  speaking  in  the  pulpit  was  exactly  like  his 
speaking  by  the  fireside.  I  introduce  his  name  for 
the  purpose  of  reciting  his  observation  that  in  the 
great  awakenings  of  Connecticut,  in  which  he  la 
boured  with  such  amazing  results,  he  scarcely  ever 
remained  in  any  parish  of  which  the  minister  did  not 
acquire  the  same  extemporaneous  gift. 

If  you  press  me  to  say  which  is  absolutely  the 
best  practice  in  regard  to  "  notes,"  properly  so  called, 
that  is,  in  distinction  from  a  complete  manuscript,  I 
unhesitatingly  say,  USE  NONE.  Carry  no  scrap  of  writ 
ing  into  the  pulpit.  Let  your  scheme,  with  all  its 
branches,  be  written  on  your  mental  tablet.  The 
practice  will  be  invaluable.  I  know  a  public  speaker 
7 


146  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

about  my  own  age,  who  has  never  employed  a  note 
of  any  kind.  But  while  this  is  a  counsel  for  which, 
if  you  follow  it  you  will  thank  me  as  long  as  you 
live,  I  am  pretty  sure  you  have  not  courage  and  self- 
denial  to  make  the  venture.  And  I  admit  that  some 
great  preachers  have  been  less  vigorous.  The  late 
Mr.  "Wirt,  himself  one  of  the  most  classical  and  bril 
liant  extempore  orators  of  America,  used  to  speak  in 
admiration  of  his  pastor,  the  beloved  Nevins  of  Balti 
more.  Now,  having  often  counselled  with  this  elo 
quent  clergyman,  I  happen  to  know  that  while  his 
morning  discourses  were  committed  to  memory,  his 
afternoon  discourses  were  from  a  "  brief."  A  greater 
orator  than  either,  who  was  at  the  same  time  a  friend 
of  both,  thus  advised  a  young  preacher  :  "  In  your 
case,"  said  Summerfield,  "  I  would  recommend  the 
choice  of  a  companion  or  two,  with  whom  you  could 
accustom  yourself  to  open  and  amplify  your  thoughts 
on  a  portion  of  the  word  of  God  in  the  way  of  lecture. 
Choose  a  copious  subject,  and  be  not  anxious  to  say 
all  that  might  be  said.  Let  your  efforts  be  aimed  at 
giving  a  strong  outline ;  the  filling  up  will  be  much 
more  easily  attained.  Prepare  a  skeleton  of  your 
leading  ideas,  branching  them  off  into  their  sec 
ondary  relations.  This  you  may  have  before  you. 
Digest  well  the  subject,  but  be  not  careful  to  choose 
your  words  previous  to  your  delivery.  Follow  out 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  147 

the  idea  with  such  language  as  may  offer  at  the  mo 
ment.  Don't  be  discouraged  if  you  fall  clown  a  hun 
dred  times  ;  for  though  you  fall,  -you  shall  rise  again  ; 
and  cheer  yourself  with  the  prophet's  challenge, '  Who 
hath  despised  the  day  of  small  things  ? ' :  If  any 
words  of  mine  could  be  needed  to  reinforce  the  opin 
ion  of  the  most  enchanting  speaker  I  ever  heard,  I 
should  employ  them  in  fixing  in  your  mind  the  coun 
sel  not  to  prepare  your  words.  Certain  preachers,  by 
a  powerful  and  constraining  discipline,  have  acquired 
the  faculty  of  mentally  rehearsing  the  entire  discourse 
which  they  were  to  deliver,  with  almost  the  precise 
language.  This  is  manifestly  no  more  extemporane 
ous  preaching  than  if  they  had  written  down  every 
word  in  a  book.  It  is  almost  identical  with  what  is 
called  memoriter  preaching.  But  if  you  would  avail 
yourself  of  the  plastic  power  of  excitement  in  a  great 
assembly  to  create  for  the  gushing  thought  a  mould 
of  fitting  diction,  you  will  not  spend  a  moment  on  the 
words,  following  Horace : 

"  Verbaque  provisam  rem  non  invita  sequentur." 

^Nothing  more  effectually  ruffles  that  composure 
of  mind  which  the  preacher  needs,  than  to  have  a  dis 
jointed  train  of  half-remembered  words  floating  in  the 
mind.  For  which  reason  few  persons  have  ever  been 
successful  in  a  certain  method  which  I  have  seen  pro- 


148  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

posed,  to  wit :  that  the  young  speaker  should  prepare 
his  manuscript,  give  it  a  thorough  reading  before 
hand,  and  then  preach  with  a  general  recollection 
of  its  contents.  The  result  is  that  the  mind  is  in  a 
libration  and  pother,  betwixt  the  word  in  the  paper 
and  the  probably  better  word  which  comes  to  the  tip 
of  the  tongue.  Generally  speaking,  the  best  possible 
word  is  the  one  which  is  born  of  the  thought  in  the 
presence  of  the  assembly.  And  the  less  you  think 
about  words  as  a  separate  affair,  the  better  they  will 
be.  ]VIy  sedulous  endeavour  is  then  to  carry  your 
attention  back  to  the  great  earnest  business  of  con 
veying  God's  message  to  the  soul ;  being  convinced 
that  here  as  elsewhere  the  seeking  of  God's  kingdom 
and  righteousness  will  best  secure  subordinate  mat 
ters. 

~No  candid  observer  can  deny  to  the  TVesleyans 
extraordinary  success  in  extemporaneous  preaching. 
"While  the  lowest  class  of  their  itinerants  are  all  rant 
and  bellow,  their  mode  of  gradual  training,  in  class- 
meetings,  in  societies,  and  finally  in  immense  out 
door  gatherings,  is  one  of  the  best  for  bringing  out 
whatsoever  natural  gifts  there  may  be  among  their 
young  men  ;  and  hence  they  have  from  the  very  days 
of  the  Wesleys,  had  an  unbroken  succession  of  elo 
quent  men  in  their  first  rank.  You  will  call  to  mind 
Newton,  Summerfield,  and  other  familiar  names.  A 


LETTEES   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  14:9 

traditionary  manner  of  elevated  discourse,  at  once 
colloquial  and  passionate,  lias  no  doubt  been  handed 
down  from  the  origin  of  the  society.  There  is  an  ac 
count  of  Charles  Wesley's  debut,  which  cannot  fail  to 
interest  you.  It  was  in  the  year  1738,  and  in  the 
little  church  of  St.  Antholin,  Watling  street,  originally 
founded  in  the  fourteenth  century  that  he  first  at 
tempted  to  fly  from  the  nest.  "  Seeing  so  few  pres 
ent,"  says  he,  "  I  thought  of  preaching  extempore ; 
afraid,  yet  I  ventured  on  the  promise,  '  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,'  and  spoke  on  justification,  from  Romans 
iii.  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour  without  hesitation. 
Glory  be  to  God,  who  keepeth  his  promise  for 
ever  !  "  *  Which  reminds  me  to  quote  Mr.  Monod 
in  another  place,  and  to  assure  you  that  the  true  way 
of  being  raised  above  the  fear  of  man  in  your  early 
services  is  to  be  much  filled  with  the  fear  of  God ; 
and  that  the  only  just  confidence  of  the  preacher  is 
confidence  in  the  promised  assistance  of  God.  Until 
you  cease  to  regard  the  preaching  of  the  word  as  in 
any  sense  a  rhetorical  exercise,  it  matters  little  whether 
you  read  or  speak,  or  what  method  of  preparation  is 
adopted ;  you  will  be  "  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tink 
ling  cymbal." 

Contrary  to  my  supposition  when  I  began,  the 
sequel  will  demand  at  least  one  letter  more. 
*  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,  p.  UY. 


150  THOUGHTS  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

LETTER  VIII. 

ON  EXTEMPOEAXEOUS   PEEACHING. 

You  will  have  observed  that  in  my  remarks  on 
this  topic,  I  have  not  directly  approached  the  ques 
tion  touching  the  comparative  excellence  of  this 
method.  One  must  have  lived  in  a  very  narrow 
glen  and  drawn  few  lessons  from  observation,  not  to 
have  discovered  long  ago  that  there  are  different 
ways  of  accomplishing  the  same  great  ends  in  Provi 
dence,  and  that  a  beautiful  variety  of  methods  is  used 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  Much  that  is  written 
on  these  matters  is  a  covert  self-laudation  ;  or,  as  was 
harshly  said  of  Reynolds's  Lectures  on  Painting  and 
Sculpture,  "  a  good  apology  for  bad  practice."  But 
wrhile  you  allow  your  brethren  to  write  and  even  to 
read  their  discourses,  you  nevertheless  desire  some 
hints  as  to  your  own  discipline  in  the  freer  method. 
If  long  experiment,  innumerable  blunders,  and  un 
feigned  regrets,  can  qualify  any  one  to  counsel  you, 
I  am  the  man  ;  for  all  my  life  I  have  felt  the  struggle 
between  a  high  ideal  and  a  most  faulty  practice. 
But  what  I  offer  with  an  affectionate  desire  for  your 
profiting  is  derived  rather  from  the  successes  of  others 
than  from  my  own  failures. 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  151 

Argumentative  discourse,  the  most  methodical, 
connected,  orderly,  close,  and  finished,  may  be  con 
veyed  without  previous  writing.  The  forum  and  the 
deliberative  assembly  afford  the  demonstration.  It  is 
not  true  that  writing  insures  ratiocinative  treatment ; 
it  is  not  true  that  what  is  loosely  called  extempora 
neous  speech  necessitates  incoherent  declamation.  A 
few  of  us  remember  with  pleasure  that  great  but  sin 
gular  man,  James  P.  "Wilson,  of  the  First  Church, 
Philadelphia.  His  spare  figure,  his  sitting  posture, 
his  serene,  bloodless  countenance,  his  gentle  cough, 
his  fan,  all  rise  to  make  up  the  picture.  There  was 
no  elevation  of  voice,  there  was  no  appeal  to  sensi 
bility.  All  was  analytic  exposition,  erudite  citation, 
linked  argument.  Yet,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  his  long  ministry,  he  never  brought  any  manu 
script  into  the  pulpit.  As  this  has  been  questioned, 
his  own  words  may  be  cited  as  testimony  valid  up  to 
the  year  1810  ;  they  are  otherwise  valuable  in  regard 
to  their  exemplary  candour.  Speaking  of  himself  as 
a  preacher,  he  says  : — "  He  never  committed  to  mem 
ory,  nor  read  a  sermon  or  lecture  in  public  since  he 
began  the  ministry.  This  statement  is  designed  as 
an  apology  both  for  the  shortness  and  other  defects  of 
these  preparations,  which  were  composed  chiefly  for 
private  use."  *  The  late  President  Dwight — certainly 

*  Lectures  on  some  of  the  Parables.     Phil.  1810.     Preface. 


152  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

not  from  any  incapacity  to  handle  the  pen — during 
the  latter  years  of  his  life,  when  his  eyes  were  failing, 
preached  ex  tempore  those  great  sermons  which  after 
wards,  at  his  dictation,  were  written  down,  and  so 
constitute  his  System  of  Theology.  The  excellent 
Commentary  of  McGhee  011  the  Ephesians  was  taken 
down  in  short-hand  from  his  extemporaneous  lectures. 
The  same  is  true  of  Gaussen's  Lectures  on  the  Apoca 
lypse.  But  why  cite  recent  instances,  when  we  know 
that  all  the  sermons  of  Augustine,  and  a  great  part 
of  Calvin's  expositions  were  thus  prepared?  Let  this 
fully  rid  your  mind  of  the  conceit  of  Freshmen,  that 
to  preach  ex  tempore,  is  to  preach  what  is  empty, 
loose,  or  turgescent.  Let  it  further  conduct  you  to 
what  is  the  puppis  et  prora  of  the  wThole  matter, 
namely,  that  every  thing  in  a  sermon  is  secondary  to 
its  contents. 

Among  continental  divines  the  reading  of  sermons 
may  in  general  terms  be  said  to  be  unknown.  The 
normal  method  is  that  of  pronouncing  from  mem 
ory  what  has  been  carefully  written.  This  is  so  ad 
mitted  a  point,  that  special  rules  are  laid  down,  in  all 
homiletical  instructions,  concerning  the  time  and  man 
ner  of  getting  the  concept  (a  most  convenient  term) 
by  heart.  Yet  many  Italian,  French,  and  German 
preachers,  and  among  them  some  of  the  greatest, 
easily  slide  into  the  way  of  premeditative  discourse. 


LETTEES   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  153 

Where  a  particular  method  has  had  some  prevalence 
for  centuries,  it  is  natural  to  expect  useful  maxims. 
Let  me,  therefore,  quote  the  recommendations  of  a 
few  judicious  writers.  Consider  then  what  is  pro 
posed  by  Ebrard,  Consistorial  Councillor  in  Spire ; 
but  take  it  on  his  great  authority,  not  on  mine : — 
"  Committing  to  memory  should  be  a  renewed  medita 
tion  of  the  expression.  When  the  sermon  has  been 
concocted,  let  the  preacher,  on  a  quarto  sheet  (no 
more  is  needed)  draw  off  a  mnemonical  sketch  /  that 
is,  indicate  the  thoughts  or  those  clusters  of  thought, 
accordingly  as  his  memory  is  strong  or  weak,  by  a 
single  phrase,  or  mnemonic  catchword.  Let  him  set 
down  these  in  a  tabular  way,  strikingly,  so  that  the 
lines  may  fall  into  shapes  to  seize  the  eye.  Now  let 
him  throw  aside  his  manuscript  and  try,  by  the  aid 
of  this  paper,  to  reproduce  the  sermon ;  that  is,  to 
invent  afresh  equivalent  expressions."  I  have  already 
advanced  reasons  against  all  such  cumbering  of  the 
mind  ;  but  my  zeal  for  unbounded  liberty  and  devel 
opment  of  subjective  peculiarities,  leaves  me  to  offer 
it  to  you  for  what  it  is  worth.  The  remarks  of  an 
equally  celebrated  man,  Professor  Hagenback  of 
Bale,  are  less  exceptionable :  "  Whether  a  sermon 
shall  be  written  and  committed  to  memory,  or  shall 
be  elaborated  only  in  the  mind,  must  be  determined 
by  individual  peculiarity,  and  is  a  question  on  which 


154:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

theory  has  not  much  to  say.  In  every  case,  this  pro 
cess  of  memory  must  be  regarded  as  a  transient  one, 
from  which  nothing  goes  over  to  the  actual  delivery. 
Even  where  the  sermon  has  been  written,  it  must  be 
conceived  by  the  mind  as  something  spoken,  and  not 
as  something  composed."  Schleiermacher,  who  al 
ways  extemporized,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  this 
was  the  proper  method  for  tranquil  natures,  while 
those  less  equable  should  fix  the  thought  and  expres 
sion  by  careful  writing.  On  the  other  hand,  Rosen- 
kranz  observes  : — "  Our  early  familiarity  with  books 
and  writing  and  our  small  acquaintance  with  think 
ing,  especially  among  the  learned  class,  may  account 
for  our  making  so  little  of  extemporaneous  discourse." 
And  the  enthusiastic  and  eloquent  Gossner  character 
istically  says  : — "  The  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost  dis 
tributed  fiery  tongues,  and  not  pens."  The  motto  of 
the  great  and  pious  Bengel  was,  "  Much  thinking, 
little  .  -writing ;  "  yet  he  wrote  down  his  divisions. 
These  gleanings  will  suffice  to  disclose  to  you  the 
German  mind  on  this  subject.  What  you  may  gather 
from  all  these  eminent  preachers  is,  that  whatever  be 
your  particular  method,  nothing  can  be  accomplished 
without  laborious  thought. 

There  is  a  caution,  derived  from  personal  misad 
venture,  which  I  would  seek  to  impress  upon  you, 
with  reference  to  your  early  trials.  Beware  of  undue 


LETTERS    TO    YOUNG    MINISTERS.  155 

length.  Do  not  undertake  to  say  every  thing,  which 
is  the  secret  of  tiresomeness.  Oh,  the  grievousness 
even  of  calling  to  memory  the  exhaustive  and  ex 
hausting  teachers  of  patience  !  Avoid  the  notion  of 
those  who  think  they  must  occupy  up  a  certain  time, 
as  by  hour-glass.  Fifteen  minutes,  well  and  wisely 
filled,  can  insure  a  better  sermon  than  two  hours  of 
platitude  and  repetition.  Touch  and  go  in  these  early 
attempts.  Only  be  on  the  watch  for  moments  when 
the  thought  unexpectedly  thaws  out  and  flows,  and 
give  the  current  free  course.  Beginners,  who  appre 
hend  a  paucity  of  matter,  and  have  small  power  of 
amplification,  will  be  much  relieved  by  carrying  out 
the  scheme  or  plan  of  their  sermon  into  more  numer 
ous  subdivision.  On  each  of  these,  something  can 
certainly  be  said,  especially  if,  after  the  Scotch  meth 
od,  each  particular  is  fortified  with  a  Scripture  pas 
sage.  Neither  in  these  exercises,  nor  in  any  other, 
act  upon  the  mean  policy  of  reserving  your  good 
things  till  afterwards.  Believe,  with  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  that  the  mind  is  not  like  poor  milk,  which  can 
bear  but  one  creaming.  Therefore,  always  do  your 
best.  It  is  unfair  in  some  who  lament  the  decay  of 
extemporaneous  preaching  to  assume  that  it  has  gone 
altogether  into  desuetude  in  the  Northern  States. 
This  is  so  far  from  being  the  case  that  there  is  scarcely 
a  settled  pastor  of  my  acquaintance  who  does  not  fre- 


156  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

quently,  if  not  every  week,  address  his  smaller  audi 
ences  without  what,  in  Scotland,  are  called  "  the 
papers."  Some  of  the  happiest  efforts  I  have  heard, 
were  made  by  preachers  who  elaborate  their  more  im 
portant  discourses  by  thorough  writing.  It  is  in  such 
meetings,  then,  as  these  that  the  young  preacher  will 
find  his  most  favourable  school  of  practice.  Here  he 
will  be  sustained  by  the  sympathy  of  pious  and  loving 
fellow-Chrstians,  who,  with  minds  remote  from  every 
thing  like  critical  inquisition,  will  seek  from  the  pas 
tor's  lips  the  word  of  life.  I  strongly  advise  you  to 
seek  out  and  delight  in  such  assemblages.  If  they 
interest  you,  they  will  interest  those  who  hear  you ; 
and  the  more  you  forget  the  scholar  and  the  orator, 
the  more  will  you  attain  the  qualities  of  the  successful 
preacher.  It  was  in  such  free  gatherings,  where  for 
malism  was  excluded,  and  discourse  was  colloquial, 
that  Yenn,  Houseman,  Cecil,  Simeon,  Scott,  Martyn, 
Richmond,  Scholeiield,  Cams,  and  other  blessed  ser 
vants  of  God  in  the  English  Church,  learned  to  break 
through  the  trammels  of  the  age.  It  was  my  great 
privilege  to  hear  Professor  Scholefield  preach  a  warm 
extempore  discourse  to  a  crowded  assembly  in  St. 
Andrew's  Church,  Cambridge.  The  theme  was  the 
repentance  of  Ahab  ;  and  as  I  listened  to  the  plain, 
evangelical,  ardent  utterance  of  this  simple-hearted 
Christian.  I  could  hardly  persuade  myself  that  I  had 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  157 

"before  me  the  celebrated  Greek  editor  and  accom 
plished  successor  of  Porson.  Who  can  calculate  the 
blessings  conferred  on  Great  Britain  and  the  world 
through  the  labours  of  Charles  Simeon  and  his 
school  ? 

In  order  to  give  a  turn  still  more  practical  to  my 
advices,  I  will  throw  them  into  hortatory  form.  Sin 
gle  out  some  service  among  the  most  serious  of  your 
neighbours,  and  where  you  can  be  undisturbed  in 
your  sincere  endeavour  to  do  them  good.  Aim  hon 
estly  at  having  the  devotional  sentiment  uppermost. 
Block  out  your  matter  with  much  care  and  exactness, 
and  assure  yourself  of  perfect  acquaintance  with  the 
entire  order.  Set  about  the  work  with  an  expecta 
tion  of  being  very  short.  Do  not  allow  yourself  to 
dally  long  with  any  single  point.  Be  simple,  be  nat 
ural,  be  moderate,  and  use  no  means  to  pump  up 
fictitious  emotion  ;  above  all,  use  no  tricks  of  voice  or 
gesture  to  express  emotion  which  you  do  not  expe 
rience.  On  this  point  I  will  copy  for  you  Ebrard's 
comic  advice,  which  may  suggest  something  even  by 
its  exaggeration  and  caricature : — "  The  preacher 
should  not  seek  to  make  the  thing  finer  than  it  really 
is.  He  should  not  prank  common-place  thoughts 
with  rhetorical  ornaments.  He  should  not  attempt 
by  verbal  artifice  a  pathos  which  is  foreign  to  his 
heart.  Let  him  say  what  he  has  to  say  clearly  and 


158  THOUGHTS  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

naturally.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  rule — Not  a 
word  more  than  the  thing  itself  carries  along  with  it. 
If  the  preacher's  heart  is  warm  and  excited,  this  move 
ment  and  animation  will  find  natural  expression  in 
words.  Pectus  facit  disertam.  In  like  manner  in 
dividual  colouring  will  take  care  of  itself ;  so  that  if 
two  preachers  treat  the  same  text,  and  in  the  same 
view  of  it,  the  proverb  shall  still  hold  true  of  them, 
6  If  two  do  the  same,  it  is  not  the  same  they  do  ; '  Duo 
sifaciunt  idem,  non  est  idem.  One  will  unintention 
ally  speak  more  warmly  and  nobly  than  the  other. 
These  two  constituents,  to  wit,  warmth  and  individual 
colouring,  enter  of  their  own  accord ;  the  latter  we 
need  not  seek,  the  former  we  ought  not.  The  desire  to 
preach  a  fine  sermon  is  a  sin."  And  in  regard  to  the 
vicious  amplification  of  slender  minds  he  thus  writes  : 
— "  Instead  of  saying  in  plain  terms,  *  Every  thing  on 
earth  is  transitory,'  and  clenching  it  by  a  verse  out  of 
the  Psalms,  [such  a  preacher]  says  : — c  Let  us  cast  our 
eyes  upon  the  flowers  of  the  field,  the  slender  lilies  in 
their  silver  lustre,  the  glow  of  the  rose,  the  blossom 
ing  decoration  of  the  trees,  which  gladden  us  with 
their  fruits — -Oh,  how  refreshing  to  our  eyes  are  these 
sights  in  the  vernal  season  !  But,  alas  !  that  which 
was  blooming  yesterday,  droops  withering  to  the 
earth  to-day !  A  mortal  breath  sweeps  over  the 
scene,  and  the  frail  flower  sinks  weak  and  sickly  to 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTEKS.  159 

the  ground ! '  How  beautiful ! — Nay,  more,  it  is  won 
derful,  among  these  flowrets  of  amplification,  that  not 
only  a  simple  thought,  but  sometimes  the  veriest  nega 
tion  of  thought,  a  mere  logical  category  without  con 
tents,  may  be  dressed  up  in  pompous  words.  '  Every 
man  has  proof  already  of  God's  goodness  and  provi 
dence.'  Here  proceed  to  inflate  the  <  every  man'  thus : 
— '  Go  and  ask  the  aged  ;  ask  the  young  ;  go  to  the 
man  of  hoary  hairs,  whose  silver  locks  tend  towards 
the  earth  ;  go  to  the  children  gambolling  amid  the 
grass  ;  the  sprightly  boy  ;  the  aspiring  youth ;  abide 
in  the  circle  of  friends,  in  the  faithful  home,  or  speed 
away  in  the  distance  ;  traverse  the  foaming  flood  of 
the  perturbed  ocean  ;  fly  to  the  north,  the  south,  the 
east,  or  the  west ;  go,  I  say  and  ask  where  thou  wilt 
and  whom  thou  wilt ;  the  sage  and  the  fool ;  inquire 
of  his  experience,  and  thou  shalt  find  in  the  history  of 
each  and  every  one  traces  of  divine  providence  and 
proofs  of  divine  benevolence,  &c."  *  The  American 
variety  may  differ  from  the  German  ;  but  you  recog 
nize  in  this  a  familiar  mode  of  beating  the  matter  out 
thin,  which  disgraces  such  extempore  haranguers  as 
attempt  "  to  split  the  ears  of  the  groundlings  ;  who, 
for  the  most  part,  are  capable  of  nothing  but  inexpli 
cable  dumb  shows  and  noise."  The  consideration  of 
this  will,  I  am  very  sure,  guard  you  against  striving 

*  Ebrard  Prakt.  Theologie,  p.  341. 


160  THOUGHTS   ON    PKEACHING. 

after  protraction  of  talk  and  grandiloquent  blowing 
up  of  common  thoughts.  Therefore  content  yourself 
for  some  time  with  being  true,  intelligible  and  ear 
nest,  without  any  remarkable  flights  of  eloquence  ;  for 
I  wish  to  see  you  fairly  established  on  your  skates  be 
fore  you  essay  pirouettes  and  double-eights  upon  the 
ice.  But  inanum  de  tabula. 


LETTER  IX. 

ON  EXTEMPOEAXEOUS   PEEACHING. 

IF  the  least  thought  had  crossed  my  mind  that 
familiar  advices  on  a  point  which  interests  you  would 
have  grown  from  one  letter  to  three,  I  should  cer 
tainly  have  attempted  a  more  formal  disposition  of 
these  desultory  remarks.  Take  them,  however,  as 
they  rise  and  flow.  I  have  written  in  earnest,  because  I 
know  your  solicitude  and  augur  your  success.  Do  me 
the  justice  to  believe  that  I  am  not  exalting  my  own 
little  method  as  the  only  one  in  which  excellence  may 
be  attained.  I  should  painfully  doubt  my  enlarge 
ment  of  view  and  maturity  of  judgment,  if  I  felt  my 
self  sliding  into  such  a  pedantry.  From  our  own 
poor  pedestrian  level  let  us  look  up  at  the  mighty 
preachers  of  the  past — the  Bossuets,  "Whitefields, 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  161 

Wesleys,  Chalmerses,  and  Masons,  and  own  that 
God  accomplishes  his  gracious  ends  not  only  by  a 
variety  of  instruments,  but  in  a  variety  of  ways. 
If  there  is  any  maxim  which  you  might  inscribe 
on  your  seal-ring  and  your  pen,  it  is  this,  Be  your 
self.  As  Kant  says,  every  man  has  his  own  way 
of  preserving  health,  so  we  may  assert  that  every  true 
servant  of  the  gospel  has  his  own  way  of  being  a 
preacher  ;  and  I  pray  that  you  may  never  fall  among 
a  people  so  untutored  or  so  straitened  as  to  be  willing 
to  receive  the  truth  only  by  one  sort  of  conduit. 
Every  genuine  preacher  becomes  such,  under  God,  in 
a  way  of  his  own  and  by  a  secret  discipline.  But 
after  having  reached  a  certain  measure  of  success,  it 
will  require  much  humility,  much  knowiedge  of  the 
world,  and  much  liberality  of  judgment,  to  preserve 
him  from  erecting  his  own  methods  into  a  standard 
for  even  all  the  world. 

When  you  resolve  to  attempt  preaching  ex  tern- 
pore^  in  the  qualified  sense  of  that  phrase,  you  by  no 
means  renounce  order,  correctness,  or  elegance.  Of 
all  these  we  have  repeatedly  known  as  great  exam 
ples  in  those  who  did  not  write  as  in  those  who  did. 
All  these  qualities  will  be  found  to  depend  less  on 
writing  or  not  writing,  than  on  the  entire  previous 
discipline.  As  well  might  you  say  that  no  one  can 
speak  good  grammar  unless  he  has  previously  written. 


162  THOUGHTS  ON  PEEACHING. 

"Whether  he  speaks  good  grammar  or  not  depends  on  his 
breeding  in  the  nursery,  in  school,  and  in  society.  He 
who  has  been  trained  cannot  but  speak  good  English  ; 
and  so  of  the  rest.  You  have  read  what  Cicero  says 
concerning  the  latinity  of  the  old  model  orators — they 
could  not  help  it. :  "  Ne  cupientes  guidem,  potuerunt 
loqid,  nisi  Latine"*  Madison,  Ames,  "Wirt,  "Webster, 
or  Everett,  could  not  be  cornered  into  bad  English. 
Cicero  goes  aside  even  in  his  great  ethical  treatise  to 
relate  with,  gusto  how  delicious  was  the  Latin  speech 
of  the  whole  family  of  Catulli.f  And  in  regard  as 
well  to  this  as  to  flow  of  words,  he  lays  down  the 
grand  principle  when  he  says  :  "Abundance  of  mat 
ter  begets  abundance  of  words ;  and  if  the  things 
spoken  of  possess  nobleness,  there  will  be  derived  from 
that  nobleness,  a  certain  splendour  of  diction.  Only  let 
the  man  who  is  to  speak  or  write  be  liberally  trained 
by  the  education  and  instruction  of  his  boyish  days  ; 
let  him  burn  with  desire  of  proficiency  ;  let  him  have 
natural  advantages,  and  be  exercised  in  innumerable 
discussions  of  every  kind,  and  let  him  be  familiar 
with  the  finest  writers  and  speakers,  so  as  to  compre 
hend  and  imitate  them ;  an,d  (Nm  ille  hand  sane) 
you  need  give  yourself  no  trouble  about  such  a  one's 
needing  masters  to  tell  him  how  hs  shall  arrange  or 
beautify  his  words  !  "  $ 

*  De  Oratore  III.  10.        f  Be  Officiis  I.  3Y.        \  De  Oratore  II.  31. 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  163 

Tour  own  observation  will  predispose  you  to  ac 
cept  the  testimony  of  all  competent  persons,  that 
method,  closeness  of  thought,  and  the  utmost  polish 
may  exist  where  there  has  been  no  use  of  the  pen  in 
immediate  preparation.  Fenelon,  Burke,  Fox,  Robert 
Hall,  and  Randolph,  are  cases  in  point.  Let  me  dwell 
a  few  moments  on  the  first-named,  for  these  two  rea 
sons  :  first,  that  he  is  unsurpassed  in  correctness  and 
elegance ;  and  secondly,  that  he  is  the  most  celebrated 
advocate  of  ex  tempore  preaching.  His  remarks  are 
too  long  to  be  fully  cited,  but  they  furnish  a  qualifica 
tion  which  is  needed  just  in  this  place,  to  show  you 
what  degree  of  rhetorical  elegance  should  be  craved. 
The  extemporaneous  preacher,  (says  Fenelon)  on  the 
supposition  that,  "  as  Cicero  enjoins,  he  has  read  all 
good  models,  that  he  has  much  facility,  natural  and 
acquired,  that  his  fund  of  principles  and  erudition  is 
abundant,  and  that  he  has  thoroughly  premeditated 
his  subject,  so  as  to  have  it  well  arranged  in  his  head, 
will,  we  must  conclude,  speak  with  force,  with  order, 
and  with  fulness.  His  periods  will  not  amuse  the  ear 
so  much :  all  the  better  ;  he  will  be  all  the  better  ora 
tor.  His  transitions  will  not  be  so  subtle  :  no  matter ; 
for — not  to  say  that  these  may  be  prepared  even  when 
they  are  not  learned  by  heart — such  negligences  will 
be  common  to  him  and  the  most  eloquent  orators  of 
antiquity,  who  believed  that  here  we  must  often  imi- 


164:  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

tate  nature,  and  not  show  too  much  preparation. 
"What  then  will  be  wanting  ?  He  may  repeat  a  little ; 
bnt  even  this  has  its  use :  not  only  will  the  hearer, 
who  has  good  taste,  take  pleasure  in  thus  recognizing 
nature,  who  loves  to  return  upon  what  strikes  her 
most ;  but  this  repetition  will  impress  truth  more 
deeply.  It  is  the  true  mode  of  giving  instruction."  * 
But  read  and  ponder  the  whole  of  these  matchless 
"  Dialogues  on  Eloquence." 

You  will  have  observed  my  disposition  to  cite 
authorities  on  this  difficult  subject,  rather  than  to 
vent  opinions  peculiarly  my  own  ;  authorities,  let  me 
add,  who  have  themselves  exemplified  what  they 
taught.  Among  all  contemporary  preachers  whom  I 
have  had  the  good  fortune  to  hear,  I  cannot  hesitate 
to  give  the  palm  of  oratory  to  Adolphe  Monod.  And 
with  what  solemnity  and  tenderness  do  I  write  this 
beloved  name,  as  fearing  lest,  even  before  these  lines 
reach  you,  he  should  have  departed  to  that  world  of 
which  he  has  spoken  so  much,  and  for  which  he  is  so 
graciously  prepared.  The  point  to  which  I  ask  your 
attention  is,  that  the  most  elegant  pulpit  writer  in 
France  is  equally  elegant  in  extemporaneous  dis 
course.  But  then  it  is  the  elegance  of  a  Grecian 
marble  ;  it  is  beautiful  simplicity.  It  is  nature — nay, 
it  is  grace  !  What  a  lesson  is  contained  for  you  in  his 

*  D'ceuvresde  Fenelon.     Paris,  1838.     Ed.  Didat.  Tom.  II.  p.  6"74. 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  165 

remarks  on  self-possession  in  the  pulpit !  I  will  quote 
them  from  a  lecture  which  Mr.  Monod  delivered  to 
his  theological  class  at  Montauban,  sixteen  years  ago. 
Observe  that  he  has  been  speaking  on  the  incompati 
bility  of  perfect  eloquence  with  "  self-observation,"  or 
thinking  how  one  is  doing  it ;  and  he  has  been  show 
ing  that  such  constraint  is  not  confined  to  those  who 
get  their  sermons  by  heart,  but  may  exist  in  extem 
pore  preaching. 

"  Suppose,"  says  he,  "  you  have  the  finest  parts ; 
of  what  use  will  they  be  to  you  unless  you  have  pres 
ence  of  mind  ?  On  the  other  hand,  he  who  is  at  his 
ease  says  only  what  he  means  to  say  ;  says  it  as  he 
means  to  say  it ;  reflects  ;  stops  a  moment,  if  need 
be,  to  cast  about  for  a  word  or  a  thought ;  borrows 
even  from  this  pause  some  expressive  tone  or  gesture  ; 
takes  advantage  of  what  he  sees  and  hears  ;  and  in  a 
word,  brings  all  his  resources  into  play  ;  which  is  say 
ing  a  great  deal ;  for  £  the  spirit  of  man  is  the  candle 
of  the  Lord,  searching  all  the  inward  parts.' '  "  You 
will  perhaps  tell  me,"  adds  this  delightful  writer,  "  that 
this  self-possession  which  I  recommend  is  rather  a 
boon  to  be  wished  for  than  a  disposition  to  be  en 
joined  ;  that  it  is  the  happy  result  of  temperament, 
of  previous  successes,  of  talent  itself,  and  that  it  is  not 
in  a  man's  power  to  be  at  ease  whenever  he  chooses. 
I  admit  that  it  depends  partly  on  temperament,  and 


166  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

this  is  a  reason  for  strengthening  it  when  timid ;  partly 
on  previous  successes,  and  this  is  a  reason  why  a  young 
man  should  apply  all  his  powers  to  take  a  fair  start  in 
his  course ;  and  partly,  also,  on  talent  itself,  and  this 
is  a  reason  for  diligently  cultivating  that  measure 
which  has  been  received.  But  there  is  yet  another 
element  which  enters  into  the  confidence  which  I  at 
the  same  time  desire  for  you  and  recommend  to  you ; 
IT  is  FAITH.  Take  your  stand  as  the  ambassador  of 
Jesus  Christ,  sent  of  God  to  sinful  men.  Believe  that 
he  who  sends  you  will  not  have  you  to  speak  in  vain. 
Seek  the  salvation  of  those  who  hear  you,  as  you  do 
your  own.  Forget  yourselves  so  as  to  behold  nothing 
but  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  your  hear 
ers.  You  will  then  tremble  more  before  God,  but 
you  will  tremble  less  before  men.  You  will  then 
speak  with  liberty,  according  to  the  measure  of  fa 
cility  and  correctness  which  you  possess  in  other  cir 
cumstances  of  life.  If  our  faith  were  perfect,  we 
should  scarcely  be  in  any  more  danger  of  falling  into 
false  or  declamatory  tones  in  preaching,  than  we 
should  in  crying  out  to  a  drowning  man  to  lay  hold  on 
the  rope  thrown  to  him  to  save  his  life."  * 

It  is  in  perusing  such  passages  as  this  that  I  begin 
to  comprehend  the  source  of  power  in  this  writer  and 

*  Discours  prononce  a  1'ouverture  <f  un  cours  do  debit  oratoire,  a 
la  faculte  de  Montauban,  le  26  Xovembre,  1840. 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  167 

other  great  masters  of  pulpit  eloquence,  and  discover 
at  the  same  time  why  such  treatises  on  extempore 
preaching  as  those  of  Ware  are  cold  and  inoperative. 
The  study  of  unapproachable  exemplars  must  not 
stimulate  us  to  experiments  like  that  of  ^Esop's  frog. 
According  to  our  measure,  we  may  succeed  here  as 
elsewhere.  I  would  most  earnestly  counsel  you  to 
throw  aside,  by  every  possible  effort,  all  that  resembles 
self-critical  observation,  while  you  are  speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.  If  your  tendency  should  be  tow 
ards  scantiness  of  vocabulary,  broken  sentences,  or 
involuntary  gaps,  halts  and  pauses,  by  all  means 
encourage  a  flow.  The  advice  which  might  be  fatal 
to  a  voluble  loquacity  is  all-important  for  you.  Keep 
up  the  continuity.  Let  trifles  go.  "What  Dr.  Johnson 
says  to  a  young  writer,  to  wit,  "It  is  so  much  easier 
to  acquire  correctness  than  flow,  that  I  would  say  to 
every  young  preacher,  "Write  as  fast  as  you  can,"  is 
even  more  necessary  for  a  young  speaker : — Speak  as 
uninterruptedly  as  you  can.  Let  little  things  go. 
Keturn  for  no  corrections.  The  wise  will  understand 
your  slips  and  forgive  them.  "Whitefield's  rule  was, 
"  Never. to  take  back  any  thing  unless  it  wrere  wicked." 
This  is  very  different  from  rapid  utterance  or  precipi 
tancy.  Deliberate  speech  is,  on  the  whole,  most  fa 
vourable.  Good  pastor  Harm's  three  L's  are  worthy 
of  being  applied  to  delivery,  but  are  poorly  repre- 


168  THOUGHTS   ON 


sented  in  English  by  the  alliteration.  Lengthened 
•  —  Loud  —  Lovely.*  Luther's  maxim  for  a  young 
preacher  is  still  more  untranslatable  ;  but  the  sense  is 
—  "  Stand  up  cheerily  —  speak  up  manfully  —  leave 
off  speedily."  Tritt  frisch  auf,  thu's  maul  aufy  hor 
laid  auf. 

It  is  high  time  I  obeyed  the  last  direction  by  leav 
ing  off.  As  I  do  so,  let  me  again  remind  you  that 
great  eloquence  is  not  necessary  to  great  success  ;  that 
there  may  be  great  power  of  discourse  where  there  is 
little  elegance  :  that  the  mighty  works  of  Divine  grace 
have  not  been  always  or  chiefly  wrought  by  the  popu 
lar  preachers  who  draw  vast  assemblies  ;  that  no  man 
can  be  always  great,  and  no  wise  man  will  seek  to  be 
always  so  ;  and  that,  after  all,  a  man  can  receive  noth 
ing  except  it  be  given  him  from  heaven. 


LETTER   X. 

ON    DILIGENCE  IN  STUDY. 

LT  what  was  said  to  you  about  Extemporaneous 
Preaching,  I  sought  to  draw  away  your  attention  from 
the  manner  to  the  matter.  He  can  never  preach  well 
who  has  nothing  to  say.  The  all-important  thing  for 

*  "  Langsara,  Laut,  Lieblich." 


LETTEES   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  169 

a  messenger  is  the  message.  Of  all  the  ways  of 
preaching  God's  word,  the  worst,  as  has  been  admitted, 
is  the  purely  extemporaneous — where  a  man  arises  to 
speak  in  God's  name  without  any  solid  material,  and 
without  any  studious  preparation.  A  thousand-fold 
better  were  it  to  read  every  word  of  an  instructive 
discourse,  in  the  most  slavish  and  uncouth  manner, 
than  to  vapour  in  airy  nothings,  with  suavity  of  mien, 
fluency  of  utterance,  and  outward  grace  of  elocution. 
It  is  this  which  has  become  the  opprobrium  of  extem 
pore  preachers ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
danger  is  imminent.  As  all  men  dislike  labour  in  it 
self  considered,  the  majority  will  perform  any  task  in 
the  easiest  way  which  is  acceptable.  And  as  most 
hearers  unfortunately  judge  more  by  external  than 
internal  qualities,  they  will  be,  for  a  certain  time, 
satisfied  with  this  ready  but  superficial  preaching. 
The  resulting  fact  is,  that  in  numberless  instances,  the 
extemporaneous  preacher  neglects  his  preparation. 
If  he  has  begun  in  this  slovenly  way  while  still  young, 
and  before  he  has  laid  up  stores  of  knowledge,  he  will, 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  be  a  shallow,  rambling  ser- 
monizer  as  long  as  he  lives.  Immense  gymnastic  ac 
tion  and  fearful  vociferation  will  probably  be  brought 
in  to  eke  out  the  want  of  theology  ;  as  a  garrison  des 
titute  of  ball,  will  be  likely  to  make  an  unusual  pother 
with  blank  cartridge. 
8 


170  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

Omitting,  for  the  moment,  the  unfaithfulness  of 
such  a  ministry,  the  man  who  thus  errs  will  find  the 
evil  consequences  rebound  upon  himself.  It  is  only 
for  a  time  that  the  most  injudicious  or  partial  congre 
gation  can  be  held  by  indigested  and  unsubstantial 
matter,  however  gracefully  delivered.  They  may  not 
trace  it  to  the  right  cause,  but  they  know  that  they 
are  wearied,  if  not  disgusted.  The  minister,  having 
rung  all  the  changes  on  his  very  small  peal  of  bells, 
has  nothing  for  it  but  to  repeat  the  old  chimes. 
"  Somehow  or  other,  Dr.  Windy  seems  to  hitch  into 
the  old  rut.  He  gives  us  the  same  sermon.  Espe 
cially  he  wears  us  out  with  the  same  heads  of  applica 
tion."  While  this  is  going  on  among  the  hearers,  it 
is  wonderful  how  long  the  offender  may  remain  igno 
rant  of  the  reason  ;  just  as  we  old  men  do  not  know 
how  often  we  repeat  the  same  story. 

Another  inevitable  result  of  unstudied  preaching, 
is  the  habit  of  wandering  or  scattering.  JSTothing  but 
laborious  discipline,  unintermitted  through  life,  can 
enable  a  man  to  stick  logically  to  his  line  of  argument. 
Discerning  hearers  know  better  than  the  careless 
preacher,  why,  after  stating  his  point,  he  constantly 
plays  about  it  and  about,  like  a  boat  in  an  eddy,  which 
moves  but  makes  no  progress.  "  Skeletons,"  as  they 
are  ludicrously  called,  however  good,  do  not  prevent 
this  evil,  unless  they  be  afterwards  thought  out  to 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG  MINISTEKS.  171 

their  remotest  articulations.  The  idle  but  voluble 
speaker  will  flutter  about  his  first  head,  and  flutter 
about  his  second,  but  will  mark  no  close  ratiocina- 
tive  connexion,  and  effect  no  fruitful  deduction.  Evi 
dently  he  who  is  continually  pouring  out,  and  but 
scantily  pouring  in,  must  soon  be  at  the  empty 
bottom. 

Indolent  preachers  fall  upon  different  devices  for 
concealing  the  smallness  of  their  staple,  and  for 
preaching  against  time.  I  have  alluded  to  the  bring 
ing  in  of  irrelative  matter  ;  kindred  to  this,  and  gen 
erally  accompanying  it,  is  undue  amplification.  The 
minute  bit  of  gold  must  be  beaten  out  very  thin ; 
hence  wordiness,  swoln  periodicity,  and  Cicero's  com 
plement  a  numerorum.  Such  ministers  seldom  remain 
long  in  a  place.  The  Presbytery  is  not,  indeed,  in 
formed  that  Mr.  Slender  has  preached  himself  out ; 
some  reading  elder,  or  surly  Scotch  pewholder  is 
made  the  scapegoat ;  but  the  fact  is,  that  the  preacher 
goes  away  to  fascinate  some  new  people  with  his  soft 
voice  and  animated  manner. 

Ministerial  study  is  a  sine  qua  non  of  success.  It 
is  absurdly  useless  to  talk  of  methods  of  preaching, 
where  there  is  no  method  of  preparation.  Ministerial 
study  is  twofold — special  and  general.  By  special 
study,  I  mean  that  preparation  for  a  given  sermon, 
which  is  analogous  to  the  lawyer's  preparation  of  his 


172  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

case.  If  faithful  and  thorough,  this  may  lead  to  high 
accomplishment ;  but,  as  in  the  instance  of  case-law 
yers,  it  may  be  carried  too  far,  and  if  exclusively  fol 
lowed  must  become  narrowing.  The  man  who  grows 
old  with  no  studies  but  those  which  terminate  upon 
the  several  demands  of  the  pulpit,  becomes  a  man 
nerist,  falls  into  monotony  of  thought,  and  ends  stiffly, 
drily,  and  wearisomely.  At  the  same  time,  he  wants 
that  enlargement  and  enriching  of  mind  derived  from 
wide  excursions  into  collateral  studies,  of  which  all 
the  world  recognizes  the  fruits  in  such  preachers  as 
Owen,  Mason,  Chalmers,  and  Hall.  Yet  even  this  in 
ferior  way  of  study  into  which  busy  and  overtasked 
men  are  prone  to  slide,  is  infinitely  better  than  the  way 
of  idleness,  oscitancy,  and  indecent  haste.  For  thus 
the  student  who  begins  betimes,  manages  to  pick  up 
a  great  deal  more  than  is  necessary  for  his  special  task. 
In  premeditating  one  sermon,  he  often  finds  hints  for 
three  more.  By  tunnelling  into  the  rock  of  a  single 
prophetic  passage,  he  comes  upon  gems  of  illustration, 
nuggets  of  doctrine,  and  cool  springs  of  experience, 
all  which  go  into  the  general  stock.  Yet  no  wise  stu 
dent  will  restrict  himself  to  the  lucubration  asked  by 
next  Sunday's  sermon. 

By  general  study  I  mean  that  preparation  which  a 
liberal  mind  is  perpetually  making,  by  reading,  writ 
ing,  and  thinking  over  and  above  the  sermonizing,  and 


LETTERS   TO    YOUNG   MINISTERS.  173 

without  any  direct  reference  to  preaching.  Such 
studies  do  indeed  pour  in  their  contributions  to  every 
future  discourse  with  a  continually  increasing  tide ; 
but  this  is  not  seen  at  once,  nor  is  this  the  proximate 
aim.  E"o  man  can  make  full  use  of  his  talent,  who 
does  not  all  his  life  pursue  a  high  track  of  generous 
reading  and  inquiry. 

Your  general  studies  will  again  subdivide  them 
selves  into  those  which  are  professional  and  those 
which  are  non-professional.  Both  are  important  and 
mutually  advantageous.  But  the  first  claim  is  that 
of  biblical  and  theological  literature  and  science,  upon 
wrhich,  at  present,  my  remarks  shall  be  brief,  and 
respecting  only  the  point  in  hand.  Let  Theology 
afford  us  an  instance  ;  though  every  word  I  write 
may  be  just  as  well  applied  to  History  and  Interpre 
tation.  Besides  all  your  sermon  making,  Theology r,  as 
a  system,  must  ~be  your  regular  study.  Neglect  this, 
and  your  pulpit  theology  will  be  one-sided ;  many 
topics  will  never  have  due  consideration.  I  shall 
augur  badly  for  your  career,  if  you  are  found  unin 
terested  in  great  theological  questions.  Some  es 
tablished  work  should  be  daily  in  your  hands  ;  and  of 
such  works  a  few  should  be  often  re-perused.  Find  a 
clergyman  who  knows  nothing  of  such  pursuits,  and 
you  will  observe  his  preaching  to  be  unmethodical, 
and  little  fitted  to  awaken  inquiry  among  deep 


174:  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

thinkers  in  his  flock.  He  will  soon  attain  his  acme, 
and  will  continue  to  dispense  milk  where  he  should 
give  strong  meat.  The  analogy  of  other  professions 
will  occur  to  you ;  the  lawyer  or  physician  who  reads 
law  or  physics  only  for  this  or  that  case,  can  never 
take  high  rank. 

Non-professional  studies  open  a  wide  field,  and 
every  minister  must  be  governed  by  the  indications 
of  Providence.  Extremes  are  perilous,  and  I  know 
too  well  how,  under  the  pretext  of  cultivating  general 
literature,  and  even  art,  a  servant  of  Christ  may  al 
most  alienate  himself  from  what  should  be  the  darling 
studies  of  his  life.  "Witherspoon  has  observed,  that  it 
is  not  to  the  credit  of  any  gospel  minister  to  be  famous 
in  any  pursuit  entirely  unconnected  with  theology. 
Yet  he  who  is  a  mere  theologian,  is  a  poor  one.  Ba 
con  said,  long  ago,  that  no  man  can  comprehend  the 
canton  of  his  own  science,  unless  he  surveys  it  from 
the  heights  of  some  contiguous  science.  Take  Law 
for  instance,  though  this  is  only  one  example  out  of  a 
hundred.  An  acquaintance  with  jurisprudence  is 
of  the  greatest  value  to  the  minister.  No  man  can 
understand  the  practice  of  our  Church  Courts  who 
does  not  discern  their  connexion  with  the  Civil,  rather 
than  the  Common  Law.  Our  very  terms,  especially 
in  the  older  forms  of  process,  savour  of  Justinian  and 
the  Code  ;  and  ignorance  of  this  has  frequently  led  to 


LETTERS   TO   YOUNG   MINISTERS.  175 

the  substitution  of  English  for  Roman  modes,  alto 
gether  subversive  of  the  unity  of  our  system.  This 
will  be  more  clear  if  you  compare  the  progress  of  a 
Scottish  ecclesiastical  action  with  that  of  one  in  Amer 
ica,  and  observe  how  utterly  we  have  lost  all  reference 
to  the  libellus,  and  other  civil  forms  of  trial.  Matthew 
Henry  was  sent  by  his  father  to  Holborn  Court,  Gray's 
Inn,  that  he  might  study  law,  as  a  preparation  for 
theology ;  and  every  part  of  his  commentary  shows 
familiar  acquaintance  with  the  terms  of  this  science. 
This  was  not  a  rare  opinion  among  the  old  Presbyte 
rians.  "  I  must  be  so  grateful  as  to  confess,"  says 
Baxter,  "  that  my  understanding  hath  made  a  better 
improvement  of  Grotius'  De  Satisfactione  Christi,  and 
of  Mr.  Lawson's  manuscripts,  than  of  any  thing  else 
that  I  ever  read.  They  convinced  me  how  unfit  we 
are  to  write  about  God's  government,  law,  and  judg 
ment,  while  we  understand  not  the  true  nature  of  gov 
ernment  and  law  in  general ;  and  he  that  is  ignorant 
of  politics,  and  of  the  law  of  nature,  will  be  ignorant 
and  erroneous  in  divinity  and  the  Sacred  Scriptures." 
Half  the  disputes  about  Imputation  could  have  been 
precluded,  if  the  combatants,  instead  of  acquiescing 
in  definitions  of  Webster,  had  familiarized  themselves 
with  the  usage  of  genuine  English  writers  in  regard 
to  the  word  guilt*  But  this  is  only  a  single  specimen. 

*  Take  one  example  out  of  many.     "  But  concerning  the  nature  or 


176  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

Tlie  times  demand  that  a  well-furnished  preacher 
should  draw  both  argument  and  illustration  from 
every  science.  Tell  me  how  you  spend  your  forenoon 
in  your  early  ministry,  and  I  shall  be  better  able  to 
predict  how  you  will  preach.  If  you  idle,  stroll,  or 
even  habitually  visit,  before  noon,  your  mental  pro 
gress  may  be  divined. 

proper  effects  of  this  spot  or  stain,  they  have  not  been  agreed :  some 
call  it  an  obligation,  or  a  guilt  of  punishment ;  so  Scotus." — Jeremy 
Taylor,  Apples  of  Sodom,  Part  II. 


EEMAKKS   ON  THE  STUDIES  AND  DISCI 
PLINE   OF  THE  PEEACHEK. 

THE  habits  of  a  young  minister,  in  respect  to 
mental  culture,  are  very  early  formed,  and  hence  no 
one  can  begin  too  soon  to  regulate  his  closet-practice 
by  maxims  derived  from  the  true  philosophy  of  mind, 
and  the  experience  of  successful  scholars.  Early  in 
troduction  to  active  labour,  in  an  extended  field,  par 
taking  of  a  missionary  and  itinerant  character,  may, 
amidst  much  usefulness,  spoil  a  man  for  life,  in  all 
that  regards  progress  of  erudition,  and  productiveness 
of  the  reasoning  powers.  Such  a  person  may  ac 
complish  much  in  the  way  of  direct  and  proximate 
good  ;  but  his  fruit  often  dies  with  him,  and  he  does 
little  in  stimulating,  forming,  and  enriching  the  minds 
of  others.  On  the  other  hand,  a  zealous  young 
scholar,  captivated  with  the  intellectual  or  literary 
side  of  ministerial  work,  may  addict  himself  to  books 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  sink  the  preacher  in  the  man 
of  learning,  and  spend  his  days  without  any  real  sym- 
8* 


178  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

pathy  with  the  affectionate  duties  of  the  working 
clergy.  The  due  admixture  of  the  contemplative 
with  the  active,  of  learning  with  labour,  of  private 
cultivation  with  public  spirit,  is  a  juste  milieu  which 
few  attain,  but  which  cannot  be  too  earnestly  recom 
mended. 

We  assume  it,  without  the  trouble  of  proof,  that 
every  young  minister,  whose  manner  of  life  is  in  any 
degree  submitted  to  his  own  choice,  will  strive  after 
the  highest  Christian  learning.  But  here  there  are 
diversities  in  the  conduct  of  studies  and  the  regula 
tion  of  thought,  which  demand  the  most  serious  dis 
crimination.  "We  are  persuaded  that  grave  errors 
prevail  in  respect  to  what  should  be  the  aim  of  the 
pastor,  in  his  parochial  studies  and  discipline.  For 
this  cause,  we  would  venture  a  few  suggestions,  not 
altogether  without  previous  experiment  and  careful 
observation. 

Let  us  suppose  a  settled  minister,  after  the  usual 
career  of  academic  and  theological  training,  to  be 
seated  in  his  quiet  parsonage,  with  a  sufficient  and 
increasing  apparatus  of  books  around  him.  His 
tastes  and  predilections  dispose  him  to  account  the 
hours  blessed  which  he  can  devote  to  reading ;  and 
many  a  man,  under  this  early  impulse,  makes  his 
greatest  attainments  during  the  first  ten  years.  Yet 
hundreds  go  astray  from  the  outset.  It  is  not  enough 


179 


to  turn  an  inquisitive  mind  loose  among  an  array  of 
great  authors.  The  error  against  which  we  would 
guard  such  a  one,  is  that  of  mistaking  a  large  and 
various  erudition  for  wise  and  thorough  culture  of  the 
faculties. 

The  knowledge  of  authors,  however  great  and 
good,  is  an  instrument,  not  an  end ;  and  an  instru 
ment  which  may  be  misdirected  and  abused.  There 
is  much  to  be  attained  from  other  sources  than  books ; 
and  all  that  is  gained  from  these,  must,  in  order  to 
the  highest  advantage,  be  made  to  pass  through  a 
process  of  inward  digestion,  which  may  be  disturbed 
or  even  precluded  by  indiscriminate  reading.  The 
attainment  of  truth  demands  more  than  what  is  termed 
erudition.  One  may  have  vast  knowledge  of  the 
repositories  of  human  opinion,  of  what  other  men, 
many  men,  have  thought  upon  all  subjects,  what  in 
modern  phrase  is  known  as  the  literature  of  science  ; 
one  may  have  a  bibliographical  accuracy  about  the 
authors  who  have  treated  this  or  that  topic  in  every 
age,  about  systems,  and  schools,  and  controversies ; 
and  yet  be  vacillating  and  undecided  as  to  the  posi 
tive  truth  in  question.  "We  meet  with  men — and 
they  are  not  the  least  agreeable  of  literary  compan 
ions — who  never  fail,  whatever  topic  may  be  started, 
to  display  familiarity  with  all  the  great  minds  who 
have  treated  it,  to  cite  author  after  author,  and  to 


180  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

pour  out  reminiscences  the  most  curious  concerning 
the  history  of  opinion  in  the  Church,  but  who  seldom 
strike  us  by  the  utterance  of  a  single  original  conclu 
sion,  and  never  evince  a  rooted  firmness  of  private 
judgment.  Such  are  they  who  amass  libraries  of 
their  own,  and  flutter  among  great  public  collections  ; 
who  dazzle  by  quotation  after  quotation  in  sermons 
and  treatises  ;  who  deck  the  margin  of  their  publica 
tions  wTith  a  catena  of  references  to  volume,  page, 
and  edition  of  works  often  inaccessible  to  ordinary 
scholars ;  but  who  discover  or  settle  no  great  prin 
ciple.  They  are  felicitous  conversers,  walking  indexes 
to  treasured  lore,  and  sprightly  essayists,  but  not  in 
vestigators,  in  the  true  sense,  not  producers,  not  solid 
thinkers.  Indeed  it  would  seem  as  if  in  the  very  pro 
portion  of  such  encyclopaedic  knowledge,  there  was 
an  incapacity  for  the  mental  forces  to  work  up  the 
enormous  mass  of  superincumbent  information.  All 
this  we  believe  to  be  true,  while  we  scorn  the  paltry 
self-conceit  of  those  who  would  denounce  learning  as 
injurious  to  originality,  or  would  contrast  readers  and 
thinkers  as  incompatible  classes.  Our  position  is 
only  that  care  must  be  taken  that  the  great  reader  be 
also  a  great  thinker. 

The  clerical  student  will  of  course  add  to  his 
knowledge  of  books  every  day ;  but  these  accumula 
tions  of  knowledge  must  be  governed  by  some  law  ; 


181 


must  be  directed,  nay,  must  be  limited.  There  is 
surely  some  point  beyond  which  the  acquisition  of 
other  men's  thoughts  must  not  be  carried.  This  we 
say  for  the  sake  of  those  helluones  librorum,  who  read 
forever  and  without  stint ;  browsing  as  diligently  as 
oxen  in  the  green  herbage  of  rich  meads,  but,  unlike 
these,  never  lying  down  to  ruminate.  Life  is  too 
short,  Art  is  too  long,  for  a  human  mind  to  make 
perpetual  accretion  of  book-learning,  without  halt. 
Suffiaminandum  est.  There  must  be  some  circum 
scription  of  the  range  ;  for  if  a  hundred  volumes,  in  a 
given  science,  may  be  read,  why  not  a  thousand  ;  and 
why  not,  supposing  so  many  extant,  ten  thousand  ? 
At  this  rate,  no  scholar  could  ever  find  his  goal.  And 
as  uninterrupted  research  shuts  out  continuous  reflec 
tion,  it  is  observed  that  those  who  go  astray  in  this 
road  become  the  prey  of  never-ending  doubts,  even 
if  they  do  not  fall  into  latitudinarian  comprehension 
and  indifference  to  truth.  The  faults  of  some  truly 
great  men  appear  to  have  had  this  origin ;  we 
might  adduce  as  instances,  Grotius,  Priestley,  and 
Parr. 

The  mind  must  be  allowed  some  periods  of  calm, 
uninterrupted  reflection,  in  order  to  librate  freely, 
and  find  the  resting-point  between  conflicting  views. 
That  time  is  sometimes  expended  in  learning,  examin 
ing,  and  collating  arguments  of  all  kinds,  on  different 


182  THOUGHTS   ON  PEEACHING. 

sides  of  a  given  question,  which  might,  by  a  much 
more  compendious  method,  have  served  to  discern 
and  embrace  positive  truth,  or  to  make  deduction 
from  acknowledged  truth.  ]STo  wise  counsellor  would 
proscribe  the  perusal  of  controversies.  Yet  he  who 
reads  on  different  sides,  must  necessarily  read  much 
that  is  erroneous  ;  and  all  tampering  with  falsehood, 
however  necessary,  is,  like  dealing  with  poisons,  full 
of  danger.  If  we  might  have  our  choice,  it  is  better 
to  converse  with  truth  than  with  error ;  with  the 
rudest,  homeliest  truth,  than  with  the  most  ingenious, 
'decorated  error ;  with  the  humblest  truth,  than  with 
the  most  soaring,  original,  and  striking  error.  The 
sedulous  perusal  of  great  controversies  is  often  a  duty, 
and  it  may  tend  to  acuminate  the  dialectical  faculty  ; 
but  none  can  deny  that  it  keeps  the  thoughts  long 
in  contact  with  divers  falsities,  and  their  specious 
reasons.  IsTow  these  same  hours  would  be  employed 
far  more  healthfully  in  contemplating  truths  which 
in  their  own  nature  are  nourishing  and  fruitful.  To 
confirm  this,  let  it  be  remembered,  that  truth  is  one, 
while  error  is  manifold,  if  not  infinite  ;  hence  the  true 
economy  of  the  faculties  is,  wherever  it  is  possible,  to 
commune  with  truth.  Again,  while  error  leads  to 
error,  truth  leads  to  truth.  Each  truth  is  germinal 
and  pregnant,  containing  other  truths.  Only  upon 
this  principle  can  we  vindicate  the  productiveness  of 


THE  PREACHER'S  STUDIES.  183 

solitary  meditation.  Link  follows  link  in  the  chain, 
which  we  draw  from  unknown  mysterious  recesses. 
A  few  elementary  truths  are  the  bases  of  the  univer 
sal  system. 

If  it  should  be  urged,  that  defenders  of  sound  doc 
trine  must  be  acquainted  with  all  diversities  of  oppo 
sition,  we  admit  it,  with  certain  limitations.  But  we 
must  be  allowed  to  add,  that  he  who  thoroughly 
knows  a  truth,  knows  also,  and  knows  thereby,  the 
opposite  errors.  Let  any  one  be  deeply  imbued  with 
the  Newtonian  system  of  the  material  universe,  and 
he  will  be  little  staggered  by  denials  of  particular 
points,  however  novel  and  however  shrewdly  main 
tained.  But  the  converse  is  not  true.  There  may  be 
the  widest  acquaintance  with  forms  of  false  opinion, 
while  after  all  the  true  doctrine  may  elude  the  most 
laborious  search.  And  therefore  we  believe  that 
the  reading  of  error,  known  to  be  such,  for  whatever 
cause,  just  or  unjust,  never  fails,  at  least  for  a  time, 
to  have  bad  effects ;  producing  pain  and  dubiety, 
collecting  rubbish  in  order  that  it  may  be  removed, 
and  inflicting  wounds  which  it  is  necessary  to  heal. 
"Without  rushing,  then,  to  any  extremes,  we  may  em 
ploy  these  incontestable  principles  in  the  regulation 
of  our  studies. 

There  is  a  sort  of  independence  and  adventure 
which  leads  inquiring  and  sanguine  minds  to  con- 


184  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

temn  the  thought  of  using  any  special  precautions  in 
the  handling  of  error.  They  feel  strong  in  their  own 
convictions,  and  fully  exempt  from  all  danger  of  being 
seduced.  But  they  neglect  the  important  principle 
that  the  very  contact  of  what  is  false  tends  to  impair 
the  mental  health.  Hence  we  are  not  ashamed  to 
avow  it,  as  a  canon  of  our  intellectual  hygeine,  that 
we  will  not,  except  from  necessity,  read  books  which 
contain  known  error.  We  would  advise  youthful 
students  especially  not  to  be  inquisitive  about  such. 
As  in  regard  to  morals,  prurient  curiosity  leads  to 
concupiscence  and  corruption,  so  in  regard  to  the  pur 
suit  of  truth,  eager  desire  of  knowing  bad  systems 
undermines  the  faith.  This  is  the  weak  place  in  some 
truly  excellent  minds.  They  spend  a  whole  literary 
life  in  acquiring  the  knowledge  of  strange,  conflicting, 
heterogeneous  systems.  There  is  no  infidelity  or 
heresy,  from.  Epicurus  and  Pelagius,  down  to  Spi 
noza  and  Comte,  into  which  they  have  not  groped. 
The  perpetual  oscillations  of  Coleridge's  great  under 
standing  are  due,  in  some  degree,  to  this  morbid 
penchant ;  hence  his  delight  in  Plotinus,  Bohm,  and 
Schelling  ;  and  hence  his  long  gestation,  resulting  in 
no  definite  faith,  and  no  completed  work.  Continual 
wandering  in  the  mazes  of  theories  which  after  all  are 
not  adopted,  ends  only  in  dissatisfaction  and  pain. 
It  is  a  trial  to  converse  with  mistaken  minds,  even 


185 


for  the  purpose  of  refutation  ;  but  to  make  such  com 
merce  the  habit  of  life,  is  to  court  disappointment  and 
weakness,  if  not  to  be  betrayed  and  supplanted. 
"With  no  common  earnestness  of  entreaty  we  would 
therefore  exhort  the  enterprising  student  to  devote  his 
days  and  nights  to  the  search  of  verity,  rather  than 
the  discovery,  or  as  a  first  object,  even  the  confuta 
tion  of  error.  Offences  must  needs  come,  and  must 
needs  be  removed ;  the  Church  must  still  have  its 
controvertists ;  but  in  regard  to  the  actor  in  these 
scenes,  unnecessary  polemics  do  harm. 

We  have  thus  prepared  the  way  for  a  view  which 
we  have  kept  before  us  from  the  beginning,  and. 
which  we  trust  will  elucidate  both  the  object  and 
method  of  ministerial  study.  Granting  that  positive 
and  unadulterated  truth  is  the  sole  result  to  be  sought, 
the  question  is  natural  and  just,  how  such  truth  shall 
be  discovered,  amidst  the  multitude  of  varying  opin 
ions.  To  the  Christian  inquirer  the  problem  need 
cause  little  hesitancy.  If  there  is  a  revelation  from 
God,  this  is  to  be  the  capital  object  of  meditation. 
The  truth  of  the  Scripture  stands  forth  at  once  as  the 
grand  topic  for  life  ;  and  this  one  book  is  at  once  the 
professional  guide  and  the  chosen  delight  of  the  sacred 
student.  He  need  no  longer  ask  what  shall  be  the 
principal  aim  of  his  inquiries,  or  what  his  line  of  di 
rection  in  the  research  of  knowledge.  Eeason  and 


186  THOUGHTS   ON  PREACHING. 

truth  are  correlative ;  and  only  what  is  true  can  afford 
nutriment  and  growth.  In  our  mingled  state,  we  re 
ceive  truth  with  additions  of  error  ;  but  all  the  benefit 
is  from  the  truth,  and  all  falsehood  is  poison,  which 
overclouds,  pains,  and  weakens  the  mind.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  affirm,  that  even  the  momentary  inhala 
tion  of  such  miasma  works  some  lesion  of  the  inward 
powers.  Who  can  say  how  many  of  our  prejudices, 
distresses,  and  sins,  arise  from  this  single  cause  ? 

In  the  conduct  of  mental  discipline,  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  see  the  applications  of  this  principle, 
though  it  may  call  for  constraint  and  self-denial. 
There  is  occasion  for  circumspect  walking  in  the 
study  of  opinion.  "We  desire  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil ;  but  let  us  be  cautious ;  let  us  employ  a 
wise  reserve ;  let  us  distrust  our  own  strength  of 
judgment ;  let  us  be  sparing  in  our  familiarity  with 
seducers.  It  were  well,  in  all  cases,  to  take  our  stand 
on  the  firm  ground  of  divine  verity,  and  thence  to 
make  our  survey  of  all  that  is  opposed.  Instances 
may  be  given  of  men  long  trained  in  the  best  schools, 
who  from  a  sickly  taste  for  strange  opinions,  have 
fallen  from  soundness  of  faith,  and  landed  in  the 
bigotry  and  superstition  of  popery,  or  the  delirious 
ravings  of  Swedenborg.  Amidst  conflicting  judg 
ments  respecting  the  doctrinal  contents  of  revelation, 
there  is  a  just  presumption  in  favour  of  those  which 


187 


are  catholic,  those  which  are  prevalent  among  good 
men,  those  which  are  obvious  in  the  record,  those 
which  tend  to  sobriety  and  holy  living,  those  which 
are  least  allied  to  enthusiastic  or  fanatic  innovation, 
those  which  grow  out  of  first  truths,  and  those  which 
are  consistent  with  themselves. 

In  the  investigation  of  truth,  it  is  important  to 
bear  steadily  in  mind  the  great  foundation  of  valid 
belief.  All  argumentation  runs  back  into  certain 
propositions  which  sustain  the  entire  structure  of 
argument,  and  which  commend  themselves  to  the  un 
sophisticated  mind,  as  light  to  the  healthy  organ  of 
vision.  This  is  especially  important  in  our  study  of 
the  Bible,  It  is  less  observed  than  it  deserves  to  be, 
that  while  the  sacred  writers  sometimes  argue,  they 
oftener  assert  the  truth.  This  is,  above  all,  true  of 
Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake  ;  and  it  became 
Him,  as  the  authoritative  Teacher,  the  Source  of  truth, 
yea,  the  Truth  itself.  The  same  declarations,  even 
now  repeated  by  mortal  lips,  have,  we  believe,  a 
penetrative  force,  greater  than  is  commonly  acknowl 
edged.  "We  may  accredit  reason,  without  going  over 
to  rationalism.  The  first  truth  and  the  first  reason 
are  coincident  in  God.  Here  subject  and  object  are 
identical.  Even  in  fallen  man,  as  a  reasonable  being, 
truth  is  fitted  to  reason.  Like  light,  it  makes  its  own 
way,  is  its  own  revealer,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  car- 


188  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

ries  its  own  evidence.  However  fully  we  may  con 
sent  to  receive  whatever  is  divinely  revealed,  there  is 
a  previous  point  to  be  settled  before  opening  the 
volume,  which  is,  that  God  is  to  be  believed ;  and 
this  is  a  discovery  of  natural  light.  There  are  truths, 
the  bare  statement  of  which  is  mighty.  The  repeated 
statement  of  truths  propagates  them  among  man 
kind  ;  most  of  our  knowledge  is  thus  derived.  These 
propositions  may  be  made  the  conclusion  of  ratioci- 
native  processes,  of  processes  differing  among  them 
selves,  and  indefinitely  multiplied  ;  for  men  have  va 
rious  ways  of  proving  the  same  thing.  But  many  a 
man  believes  that  which  he  cannot  prove  to  another. 
It  is  shallow  to  deny  or  doubt  a  proposition,  simply 
because  he  who  holds  it  is  unable  to  bring  it  within 
logical  mood  and  figure.  Thought  is  very  rapid. 
Middle  terms  are  often  faint  in  the  mind's  vision,  so  as 
to  vanish,  while  yet  the  conclusions  remain.  Nay  we 
are  sometimes  sure  of  that,  on  the  mere  statement  of 
it,  which,  so  far  as  consciousness  reports,  has  not  come 
to  us  as  the  result  of  linked  reasoning.  This  seem 
ing  intuition  may  extend  to  a  greater  sphere  of  ob 
jects,  than  those  which  are  usually  denominated  First 
Truths. 

From  these  considerations  we  may  be  encouraged, 
both  in  private  inquiry,  and  in  the  teaching  of  others. 
We  are  not  to  be  deterred  from  stating  the  truth,  be- 


189 


cause  we  have  not  time  to  argue,  nor  even  because 
it  is  denied.  Assertion  propagates  falsehood ;  how 
much  the  rather  should  we  use  it  to  propagate  truth  ? 
The  statement  of  a  great  truth  conveys  to  the  hearer 
a  form  of  thought,  which,  although  he  deny,  he  may 
come  to  believe.  Therefore  let  it  be  stated.  The 
medium  of  proof  may  come  afterwards.  Truths  con 
firm  one  another,  and  become  mutual  proofs.  In  this 
way  our  studies  of  Scripture  perpetually  build  up  our 
knowledge  and  faith.  THEEE  is  A  GOD  :  here  is  the 
sublimest  asseveration  which  human  lips  can  utter. 
It  is  declared  to  the  babe,  and  he  receives  it.  Shall 
no  man  enjoy  the  great  conception,  but  one  who  has 
mastered  the  arguments  2  The  arguments  are  multi 
form,  unlike,  perhaps  sometimes  insufficient ;  yet  the 
truth  abides.  There  are  a  thousand  arguments,  and 
a  thousand  are  yet  to  be  discovered,  just  as  there  are 
a  thousand  radii,  all  tending  to  one  point  in  which  to 
centre.  There  is  no  truth  which  the  mind  so  readily 
receives ;  and  we  adopt  it  as  a  palmary  instance  of 
the  use  of  declaring  a  truth,  as  the  Scriptures  often 
do,  independently  of  ratiocination. 

But  that  which  settles  the  mind  as  to  the  real 
warrant  for  believing  Scripture,  is  that  all  inspired 
teaching  is  authoritative  and  triumphant.  In  the 
baffling  search  of  truth,  the  weary  mind  needs  such  a 
resting-place  and  acquiesces  in  it.  The  Word  of  God, 


190  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

considered  as  a  body  of  religious  truth  and  morals,  is 
the  chief  fund  of  those  who  receive  it,  and  the  treas 
ure-house  of  the  instructed  scribe.  It  has  made  the 
wisest  philosophers  and  the  happiest  men ;  and  the 
true  business  of  the  Christian  philosopher  is  to  sub 
ject  the  sacred  text  to  a  just  interpretation.  This 
suddenly  defines  and  lightens  the  territory  of  the 
clerical  student.  His  work  in  a  certain  sense  is 
wholly  exegetical.  His  function,  in  regard  to  the 
divers  declarations  of  the  Bible,  is  like  that  of  the 
natural  philosopher  in  regard  to  the  complete  phe 
nomena  of  the  universe.  And  here  is  task  enough  ; 
for  life  is  too  short  for  even  the  united  powers  of 
Christian  interpreters  to  exhaust  all  the  meaning  of 
the  Scriptures.  The  prophetic  word  alone  seems  to 
lie  before  us  as  a  great  continent,  concerning  which 
as  great  mistakes  have  been  made  as  by  the  early 
Spanish  discoverers  about  the  new  world  they  had 
touched,  and  of  which  only  one  here  and  there  has 
taken  any  safe  bearings.  The  same  may  be  said 
concerning  the  border-land  between  revelation  and 
physical  science  ;  many  lucubrations  must  ensue,  be 
fore  the  obscure  equivocal  voices  of  science,  anti 
quities,  and  seeming  discovery,  shall  be  duly  cor 
rected  by  the  everlasting  sentences  of  God's  word. 

So  truly  are  perverse  methods  founded  in  an  evil 
nature,  and  so  prone  are  we  to  abuse  the  best  prin- 


THE  PKEACHEK'S  STUDIES.  191 

ciples,  that  with  the  Bible  in  our  hands,  as  a  chosen 
study,  we  may  slide  into  the  old  blunder  of  undigested 
and  impertinent  erudition.  The  text  may  be  swal 
lowed  up  of  commentary.  Indeed,  we  know  not  a 
field  in  which  pedantic  erudition  careers  with  more 
flaunting  display,  than  this  of  interpretation.  Young 
clergymen  there  are,  whose  proudest  toils  consist  in 
the  constant  consultation  of  a  shelf  of  interpreters, 
chiefly  German.  "We  protest  against  this  pretended 
auxiliary,  when  it  becomes  a  rival.  The  commentary, 
like  fire,  is  a  good  servant,  but  a  bad  master.  The 
state  of  mind  produced  by  sitting  in  judgment  to 
hear  twenty  or  fifty  different  expounders  give  their 
opinions  on  a  verse,  is  morbid  in  a  high  degree  ;  and 
cases  are  occurring  every  year,  of  laboriously  edu 
cated  weaklings,  rich  in  books,  who  are  utterly  de 
stroyed  for  all  usefulness  by  what  may  be  called  their 
polymathic  repletion.  No : — more  knowledge  of 
Scripture  is  generally  derived  from  direct  study  of 
the  text,  in  the  original,  with  grammar  and  lexicon, 
than  from  examining  and  comparing  all  the  opposite 
opinions  in  Pool's  Synopsis,  De  "Wette,  or  Bloomfield. 
Again  we  say,  commentaries  must  be  used,  and 
thankfully,  but  just  as  we  use  ladders,  crutches,  and 
spectacles ;  the  exception,  not  the  rule ;  the  aid  in 
emergency,  not  the  habit  of  every  moment.  There 
are  times  when  what  we  most  of  all  need,  is  to  open 


192  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

the  eye  to  the  direct  rays  of  self-evidencing  truth ; 
and  at  such  times  every  intervening  human  medium 
keeps  out  just  so  many  rays  from  falling  on  the  re 
tina.  Holy  Scripture  cannot  make  its  true  impres 
sion,  unless  it  be  read  in  continuity  ;  a  whole  epistle, 
a  whole  gospel,  a  whole  prophecy  at  once ;  and  with 
repetition  of  the  process  again  and  again  ;  but  this  is 
altogether  incompatible  with  the  piecemeal  mode  of 
leaving  the  text  every  moment  to  converse  with  the 
annotator.  The  best  posture  for  receiving  light  is 
not  that  of  an  umpire  among  contending  interpreters. 
So  far  as  the  text  is  understood  by  us,  our  study  of 
it  is  converse  with  positive  truth.  Suppose  some 
errors  are  picked  up,  as  they  will  be,  in  individual 
cases :  these  will  be  gradually  corrected  by  the  con 
fluent  light  of  many  passages.  The  sum  of  truths 
will  be  incalculably  greater  than  the  sum  of  errors. 
The  healthful  body  of  truth  will  gradually  extrude 
the  portion  of  error,  and  cause  it  to  slough  off.  The 
analogy  of  faith  will  more  and  more  throw  its  light 
into  dark  places.  All  these  effects  will  be  just  in 
proportion  to  the  daily,  diligent,  continuous  study  of 
the  pure  text.  Generally  it  will  be  found,  that  the 
more  perusal  of  the  text,  the  more  acquisition  of 
truth.  And  in  application  to  the  case  of  preachers, 
if  we  have  learnt  any  thing  by  the  painful  and  mor 
tifying  experience  of  many  years,  it  is,  that  of  all 


THE  PREACHER'S  STUDIES.  193 

preparatives  for  preaching,  the  best  is  the  study  of 
the  original  Scripture  text.  ITone  is  so  suggestive  of 
matter  ;  none  is  so  fruitful  of  illustration  ;  and  none 
is  so  certain  to  furnish  natural  and  attractive  methods 
of  partition.  If  we  did  not  know  how  many  live  in 
a  practice  diametrically  opposed  to  it,  we  should  al 
most  blush  to  reiterate,  what  indeed  comprehends  all 
we  are  urging,  that  God's  truth  is  infinitely  more 
important  than  good  methods  of  finding  i4 

We  have  sometimes  thought  that  over-explaining 
is  one  of  the  world's  plagues.  There  are  those  things 
which,  even  if  left  a  little  in  enigma  or  in  twilight,  are 
better  without  being  too  much  hammered  out.  Who 
ever  failed  to  be  sick  of  the  prating  of  the  cicerone  in 
a  foreign  gallery  ?  Why  should  we  deluge  an  author's 
inkhorn  with  water  ?  Wherefore  should  ^Esop  and 
John  Bunyan  be  diluted  with  endless  commentary  ? 
And  all  this  applies  itself  to  the  young  minister's  pri 
vate  study  of  Scripture.  Experience  shows  that  for 
pulpit  and  pastoral  purposes,  one  is  more  benefited 
by  scholia,  or  sententious  seedlike  observations  such 
as  those  of  Bengal's  Gnomon^  than  by  the  Critici 
Sacri,  Doctor  Gill,  or  Kuinoel.  Baxter  says  of  him 
self  :  "  Till  at  last,  being  by  my  sickness  cast  far  from 
home,  where  I  had  no  book  but  my  Bible,  I  set  to 
study  the  truth  from  thence,  and  so,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  discovered  more  in  one  week  than  I  had  done 
9 


194:  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

before  in  seventeen  years'  reading,  hearing,  and 
wrangling."  To  which  add  Bengel's  maxims :  Te 
totum  applica  ad  textum  •  rem  totain  applied  ad  te. 
And  again  :  "  More  extraordinary  proof  there  is  not, 
of  the  truth  and  validity  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  all 
its  contents  of  narratives,  doctrines,  promises,  and 
threatenings,  than  Holy  Scripture  itself.  Truth  con 
strains  our  acquiescence  ;  I  recognize  the  handwriting 
of  a  friend,  even  though  the  carrier  does  not  tell  me 
from  whom  he  brings  a  letter.  The  sun  is  made 
visible,  not  by  any  other  heavenly  bodies,  still  less 
by  a  torch,  but  by  itself ;  albeit  the  blind  man  appre 
hends  it  not." 

The  hive  of  books  on  interpretation  and  religious 
philosophy,  in  our  day,  is  the  German  press.  Great 
readers  among  the  younger  clergy  seem  ashamed  not 
to  have  an  acquaintance  with  these.  The  question  is 
frequently  asked,  whether  a  knowledge  of  the  German 
language  is  a  necessary  or  highly  important  part  of 
ministerial  accomplishment.  If  the  ministry  at  large 
be  regarded,  we  hesitate  not  a  moment  to  reply  that 
it  is  not.  There  are  other  attainments  far  more  valu 
able.  Some  men  indeed,  called  to  lead  in  theological 
instruction,  to  publish  expository  works,  and  to  wage 
controversies,  may  well  apply  themselves  to  this  me 
dium  of  knowledge  ;  and  as  no  one  can  predict  what 
shall  be  his  future  vocation  in  these  respects,  violence 


195 


is  not  to  bo  done  to  the  impulses  of  Providence, 
which  draw  and  urge  the  young  student  to  this  field  ; 
as  Carey  was  attracted  to  Eastern  philology,  while 
yet  a  shoemaker.  Such  exempt  cases,  however, 
cannot  be  made  the  basis  of  a  general  rule.  So  far 
as  exegesis  is  concerned,  with  its  preparations  and 
cognate  branches,  all  that  is  indispensable  in  Ger 
man  literature  is  regularly  transferred  into  English. 
Much  even  of  this  is  impure,  seductive,  and  utterly 
false  ;  and  he  may  regard  his  lot  as  happy,  who  finds 
no  duty  summoning  him  to  meddle  witli  such  a  far 
rago.  In  respect  to  theology,  properly  so  called,  and 
the  philosophy  of  religion,  we  know  of  no  single  Ger 
man  work  which  the  young  minister  may  not  do 
without.  Even  those  which  are  orthodox  are  only 
approximations  to  a  system  of  truth  from  which  the 
theologians  of  that  country  have  been  sliding  away  ; 
gleams  of  convalescence  in  a  sick-room,  which  wras 
almost  the  chamber  of  death  ;  laboured  vindications 
of  wiiat  none  among  us  doubt ;  or  refutations  of 
heresies  which  happily  have  not  invaded  our  part  of 
Christendom.  Why  should  the  parish  minister  in 
!N"ew  Jersey  or  "Wisconsin  toil  through  the  thirty 
volumes  wrhich  have  been  educed  by  Strauss's  porten 
tous  theory  ?  Why  should  he  mystify  himself  by  la 
bouring  among  the  profound  treatises  which  show  that 
God  is  personal,  or  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  sin  ? 


196  THOUGHTS   ON   PEEACHING. 

And  why  should  lie  wear  himself  out  in  mastering  a 
theosophic,  metaphysic  hypothesis,  which  has  ex 
ploded  by  the  expansion  of  its  own  gases,  before  the 
volume  has  been  brought  to  his  hands  ?  All  that  we 
have  written  about  the  infelicity  of  living  in  a  tainted 
atmosphere,  has  its  application  here.  Upon  many  a 
brilliant  book  from  abroad,  we  may  write,  as  did  the 
great  Arnauld  upon  the  fly-leaf  of  his  Malebranche, 
PuLcJiTCb)  nova,  falsa.  After  some  observation,  we 
cannot  recall  a  single  instance  of  one  who  has  become 
a  more  effective  preacher,  by  addicting  himself  to  the 
modern  authors  of  Germany. 

Keeping  in  view  the  great  importance  of  being 
something  more  than  a  warehouse  for  other  men's 
thoughts,  the  earnest  minister  will  early  seek  the  art 
of  original  meditation.  To  himself  he  will  sometimes 
appear  to  be  making  little  progress ;  perhaps  even 
to  be  walking  over  his  own  circular  track.  But 
thinking  over  the  same  trains  is  not  useless,  if  one  so 
thinks  them  over  as  to  secure  truth.  Novelty  is  the 
last  object  which  a  wise  inquirer  will  seek.  "We  may 
be  sneered  at  for  the  suggestion,  but  we  hold  it  a  wise 
purpose  quieta  non  movere,  and  till  cause  be  shown, 
to  rest  on  settled  positions.  As  we  did  not  discover 
the  tenets  which  we  profess,  but  were  taught  them, 
so  we  may  hold  them,  till  maintenance  be  denial  of 
Scripture  reasons.  In  meditation  on  these  truths,  we 


197 


may  so  conduct  the  process  as  to  revise  and  correct 
definitions  and  notions ;  to  secure  just  connection  of 
arguments  ;  to  change  the  order  of  the  same ;  to  re 
ject  useless  steps;  to  supply  chasms ;  to  reassure  the 
memory,  and  thus  to  have  materials  for  daily  think 
ing,  even  by  the  way,  in  the  crowded  street,  or  in  the 
saddle.  We  may  thus  be  carrying  on  the  entire 
column  of  truths  into  the  regions  of  further  dis 
covery. 

When  in  pursuing  theological  lucubrations,  the 
student  finds  himself  advancing  by  cautious  deduction 
from  known  truths,  he  has  this  special  safeguard,  that 
such  deductions  correct  previous  errors  and  confirm 
previous  truths  ;  the  former  by  startling  us  with 
manifest  falsehood — the  reductio  ad  absurdum — the 
latter  by  arriving  anew  at  familiar  truths,  or  truths 
consistent  with  former  truths,  or  inconsistent  with  the 
denial  of  former  truths.  Or  the  same  may  be  thus 
expressed  :  Every  advance  in  true  reasoning  adds 
confirmation  to  the  general  system.  These  are  good 
reasons  for  studying  sometimes  without  books ;  a 
great  attainment  which  some  eminent  scholars  never 
make  in  a  whole  lifetime. 

It  is,  we  trust,  impossible  for  any  so  far  to  mis 
take  our  drift,  as  to  suppose  that  we  utter  a  caveat 
against  reading,  or  even  against  extensive  reading. 
Books  are  and  must  continue  to  be  the  great  channels 


198  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

of  knowledge,  and  fertilizing  stimulants  of  the  mind. 
But  we  would  have  the  young  preacher  not  to  look 
on  them  as  the  sheaves  of  harvest.  Great  importance 
attaches  itself  to  sound  views  of  the  place  which 
human  compositions  occupy  in  mental  training. 
Crude,  immature  learners  regard  their  courses  of 
reading,  especially  when  rare  and  diversified,  as  so 
much  ultimate  gain  ;  as  furnishing  propositions  to  be 
remembered,  and  as  the  material  of  future  systems  ; 
and  according  to  their  quickness  and  tenacity  of 
memory,  they  exercise  themselves  to  reproduce  the 
contents  of  favourite  authors,  in  their  very  sequence, 
if  not  in  their  very  words.  But  the  same  persons,  if 
destined  for  anything  greater  than  slavish  repeaters, 
soon  arrive  at  the  disovery,  that  a  day  of  multifarious 
reading  needs  to  be  followed  by  an  evening  of  reflec 
tion,  in  order  to  conduce  to  any  progress.  And  let  it 
be  observed,  as  a  curious  phenomenon  of  thought, 
that  these  subsequent  reflections  are  not  the  repro 
duction  or  re-arrangement  of  notions  gathered  during 
previous  study.  This  is  useful  and  encouraging  in 
the  premeditation  of  sermons.  It  is  even  possible 
that  none  of  the  foregoing  propositions  reappear  in 
their  modified  shape  ;  the  mind  may  work  on  a  track 
entirely  new.  This  part  of  the  process  ought  to  be 
well  marked.  What  has  been  gained  is  not  so  much 
information  as  discipline  ;  the  training  of  the  athlete 


199 


before  contention.  Yet  the  previous  reading,  indeed 
all  previous  reading,  is  felt  to  have  tended  some 
how  towards  the  favourable  result.  This  is  to  be 
accounted  for  by  several  reasons.  The  powers  have 
been  stimulated ;  thus  we  manure  the  ground,  in 
order  to  crops.  In  addition  to  this,  the  generalizing 
faculty  arises  to  wider  statements,  and  laws,  for 
which  the  particulars  of  the  discursive  reading  have 
furnished  the  instances.  And  further,  the  analogy 
of  things  read  suggests  new  resemblances  and  opens 
new  trains.  But  for  all  this  there  is  no  room,  where 
the  reading  is  perpetual,  so  as  to  become  the  only 
mode  of  study.  Even  where  the  mind,  after  converse 
with  books,  is  put  upon  original  activity,  care  must 
be  taken  that  these  later  trains  of  thought  are  in  the 
direction  of  what  is  useful,  and  above  all  what  is 
divine.  The  best  flights  of  the  preacher's  meditation 
are  those  with  which  he  is  indulged  after  copious 
perusal  of  the  simple  word  of  God. 

While  many  will  assent  to  the  general  correctness 
of  these  statements,  few,  we  apprehend,  will  consent 
to  put  them  into  practice,  in  the  earlier  years  of  men 
tal  training ;  and  with  some,  the  faulty  methods  of 
these  years  become  the  habit  of  life.  But  where  a 
man  belongs  to  the  class  of  productive  minds,  he  will 
spontaneously  seek  retirement  and  self-recollection, 
after  the  laborious  reading  of  some  years.  Whether 


200  THOUGHTS  ON  PEEACHING. 

he  write  or  speak,  he  will  do  so  from  Ms  own  stores. 
It  is  true  that  much  of  what  he  so  writes  and  speaks 
will  be  the  result  of  long  intimacy  with  other  minds, 
but  not  in  the  way  of  rehearsal  or  quotation.  Wise 
and  happy  quotation  adds  beauty  and  strength  ;  but 
the  general  truth  holds,  that  the  highest  order  of 
minds  is  not  given  to  abundant  citation,  except  where 
the  very  question  is  one  which  craves  authorities. 
Masculine  thinkers  utter  the  results  of  erudition, 
rather  than  erudition  itself.  For  why  should  a  man 
be  so  careful  to  remember  what  other  men  have  said  ? 
Of  all  that  he  has  read  for  years,  much  if  not  most, 
as  to  its  original  form,  has  irrevocably  slipped  away  ; 
and  it  is  well  that  it  is  so,  as  the  mind  would  else  be 
come  a  garret  of  unmanageable  lumber.  The  mind 
is  not  a  store  or  magazine,  but  partly  a  sieve,  which 
lets  go  the  refuse,  and  partly  an  alembic,  which  dis 
tils  the  "  fifth  essence."  The  book-learning  of  any 
moderate  reader,  even  if  not  increased,  would  afford 
material  for  this  process.  The  lust  of  novelty  betrays 
some  young  preachers  into  a  feverish  thirst  for  new 
reading,  in  the  course  of  which  they  scour  the  fields 
for  every  antithetic  pungency,  and  every  brilliant  ex 
pression.  For  fear  of  commonplaces,  they  forbear  to 
give  utterance  to  those  great,  plain,  simple,  everlast 
ing  propositions,  which  after  all  are  the  main  stones 
in  the  wall  of  truth.  The  preacher  errs  grievously, 


THE  PREACHER'S  STUDIES.  201 

who  shuns  to  announce  obvious  and  familiar  things, 
if  only  they  be  true  and  seasonable,  and  logically  knit 
into  the  contexture.  The  most  momentous  sayings 
are  simple  ;  or  rather,  as  Daniel  Webster  once  said, 
"  All  great  things  are  simple." 

In  hours  of  discipline,  it  would  not  be  unprofitable 
for  the  student  to  make  it  his  rule,  every  day,  to 
bring  freshly  before  his  mind  some  solid  truth,  and 
if  possible  some  new  one ;  but  rather  the  solid  than 
the  new.  Let  him  fix  the  truth  in  his  mind  as  some 
thing  founded,  and  immovable.  Let  him  proceed  to 
deduce  other  truths,  but  with  caution.  Let  him  ab 
jure  haste  and  dread  paradox.  Let  him  humbly 
strive  to  ascend  to  the  highest  principles.  And  let 
him  be  more  concerned  about  the  laws  of  thought, 
than  the  matter  of  knowledge.  In  a  word,  let  him 

O  ' 

think  for  himself. 

This  last  advice  sometimes  works  noxious  results 
on  a  certain  class  of  minds.  As  given  from  the  desk, 
without  explanation,  it  is  just  indeed,  but  often  nuga 
tory.  Original  and  independent  thinking  is  one  of 
the  last  attainments  of  discipline.  The  novice  does 
not  know  how  to  go  about  it.  He  cannot  say,  "  I 
will  now  proceed  to  generate  a  thought,  which  neither 
I  nor  others  ever  had  before."  The  ludicrous  attempt 
is  most  likely  to  be  made  by  the  Icarus  or  the  Phse- 
thon,  of  least  strength  and  skill.  Whole  classes  of 


202  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

youth,  under  famous  teachers,  have  sometimes  been 
stimulated  into  rash  speculation  and  innovating  bold 
ness  by  the  abuse  of  this  very  counsel.  It  is  neces 
sary,  therefore,  to  qualify  and  guard  it.  All  the  be 
ginnings  of  knowledge  proceed  upon  a  principle  of 
imitation.  Not  more  truly  do  we  learn  to  speak  and 
to  write,  by  following  a  copy,  than  we  learn  to  inves 
tigate  and  to  reason  by  imitating  the  processes  of 
others.  Something  of  this  must  pertain  to  the  whole 
preliminary  stage  of  development.  But  by  degrees, 
the  native  powers  fledge  themselves  for  a  more  ad 
venturous  flight.  And  when  such  beginnings  are 
made,  and  the  young  thinker  is  animated  with  the 
desire  of  expatiating  for  himself,  it  is  prudent  that  he 
should  consider  the  nature  of  the  procedure,  or  how 
the  mind  orders  itself  in  original  thinking.  Briefly, 
then,  most  of  our  effort  concerns  the  faculty  of  atten 
tion.  We  must  look  steadily  in  the  direction  of  the 
dawning  thought,  as  we  look  eastward  for  the  sun- 
rising.  "We  can  often  do  no  more  than  hold  the  mind 
fixed.  "When  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  asked  how  he 
effected  his  vast  discoveries  he  replied,  "  By  thinking 
continually  unto  them."  Hence  the  preacher,  who 
earnestly  searches  for  truths  to  be  uttered  in  God's 
house,  will  often  feel  himself  reduced  to  a  posture  of 
soul  which  seems  passive.  Thought  is  not  engendered 
by  violent  paroxysms  of  conscious  invention ;  any 


THE  PREACHER'S  STUDIES.  203 

more  than  a  lost  coin  or  a  lost  sheep  is  found  by 
running  hither  and  thither  in  a  fury  of  pragmatical 
anxiety.  Let  the  wise  thinker  seat  himself,  and 
eschew  vexing,  plaguing  cogitations.  Those  are  not 
the  best  thoughts  which  are  wrung  out  with  knitted 
brows.  Something  must  be  conceded  to  the  spon 
taneity  of  thinking.  We  do  not  so  much  create  the 
stream,  as  watch  it,  and  to  a  certain  degree  direct  it. 
This  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  great  thinkers  do  not 
wear  themselves  out ;  but  often  attain  longevity.  It 
is  not  meditation  which  weakens  and  distempers 
clerical  students,  so  much  as  long  sitting  at  the  desk, 
and  unrestrained  indulgence  at  the  table.  Placid, 
easy  philosophizing  is  one  of  the  delights  of  life,  and 
is  fruitful.  It  may  be  carried  on  in  gardens,  on 
horseback,  at  the  seaside,  amidst  pedestrian  excur 
sions.  It  is  the  testimony  of  Malthus,  who  says  :  "  I 
think  that  the  better  half,  and  much  the  most  agree 
able  one,  of  the  pleasures  of  the  mind,  is  best  enjoyed 
while  one  is  upon  one's  legs."  In  thinking,  we  may 
discreetly  let  the  thread  drop  at  times  ;  it  will  beyond 
doubt  be  found  again  at  the  right  moment.  Inter 
ruptions  thus  do  good,  and  secure  repose  which,  might 
not  otherwise  be  taken.  Especially  converse  with 
other  minds,  on  subjects  of  present  interest,  is  among 
the  most  useful  means  of  suggestion  and  correction, 
as  it  regards  our  own  researches.  And  what  is  true 


204  THOUGHTS    ON    FKEACHING. 

of  living  friends  is  no  less  true  of  good  books ;  in 
their  proper  place,  they  afford  invaluable  helps  to  our 
original  inquiries. 

As  a  single  example,  but  that  the  most  important, 
of  what  we  mean  by  the  use  of  good  books,  as  auxil 
iary  to  private  thinking,  we  select  works  on  systematic 
theology,  either  such  as  give  a  conspectus  of  the  whole, 
or  such  as  more  largely  discuss  particular  topics. 
These  profess  to  give  the  classified  results  of  biblical 
investigation.  To  the  production  of  these  systems, 
either  in  the  head,  in  the  sermon,  or  in  the  printed 
book,  all  exegetical  research  is  subsidiary.  Fondness 
for  these  will  be  very  much  in  proportion  to  the 
strength,  clearness,  and  harmonious  action  of  the  in 
tellect.  ~No  man  can  be  said  to  know  anything  truly, 
which  he  does  not  know  systematically.  Every  mind, 
even  the  loosest,  tends  naturally  to  methodize  its 
acquisitions ;  much  of  every  man's  study  consists  in 
referring  new  truths  to  the  proper  class  in  his  mental 
arrangement ;  every  man  has  his  system,  good  or  bad, 
and  every  sermon  is,  so  far  as  it  goes,  a  body  of  di 
vinity.  But  the  great  minds  of  theology  have  made 
this  their  favourite  department ;  and  none  can  com 
mune  with  them  constantly  without  catching  a  portion 
of  their  energy,  and  learning  somewhat  of  their  art. 
Melancthon,  Calvin,  Chamier,  Turrettine,  Owen,  and 
Edwards,  are  companions  who  will  teach  a  man  to 


205 


think,  and  strengthen  him  to  preach.  "When  studies 
are  miscellaneous  and  desultory,  there  is  the  more 
reason  for  employing  frequent  perusal  of  scientific 
arrangements,  in  order  to  give  unity  to  the  varied 
acquisitions.  As  a  good  parallel,  we  may  mention 
that  the  late  Judge  "Washington  was  accustomed  to 
read  over  Blackstone's  Commentaries  once  a  year. 
This,  however,  was  not  enough  for  a  genuine  blacklet- 
ter  lawyer.  "Find  time,"  said  Lord  Chancellor 
Eldon,  "  to  read  Coke  on  Littleton,  again  and  again. 
If  it  be  toil  and  labour  to  you,  and  it  will  be  so,  think 
as  I  do,  when  I  am  climbing  up  to  Swyer  or  Westhill, 
that  the  world  will  be  before  you  when  the  toil  is  over ; 
for  so  the  Law  will  be  if  you  make  yourself  complete 
master  of  that  book.  At  present  lawyers  are  made 
good  cheap,  by  learning  law  from  Blackstone  and  less 
elegant  compilers  ;  depend  upon  it,  men  so  bred  will 
never  be  lawyers,  (though  they  may  be  barristers,) 
whatever  they  may  call  themselves.  I  read  Coke  on 
Littleton  through,  the  other  day,  when  I  was  out  of 
office ;  and  when  I  was  a  student,  I  abridged  it." 
Our  candid  judgment  is,  that  writers  such  as  we  intend 
belong  chiefly  to  a  former  period  of  Reformed  the 
ology.  And  we  have  had  a  pleasurable  surprise,  in 
finding  the  same  judgment  expressed  by  the  late  Dr. 
Pye  Smith,  who  has  been  so  often  quoted  as  favourable 
to  German  divines,  with  whose  works  he  had  a  thor- 


206  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

ough  acquaintance.  "  Perhaps,"  says  he,  "  the  very 
best  theological  writings  that  ever  the  world  beheld, 
— next  to  the  sacred  fountains  themselves, — are  the 
Latin  works  of  foreign  divines  who  have  nourished 
since  the  period  of  the  Reformation.  It  is  no  extrava 
gance  to  affirm,  that  all  the  toil  and  labour  of  acquir 
ing  a  masterly  acquaintance  with  the  Latin  tongue, 
would  be  richly  recompensed  by  the  attainment  of 
this  single  object,  an  ability  to  read  and  profit  by 
those  admirable  authors."  * 

But  the  great  incitement,  as  well  as  the  true  pab 
ulum  of  thought  is  to  be  derived  from  the  Scriptures. 
It  is  happy  for  a  student  when  he  finds  that  his  most 
animated  inquiries  are  over  the  word  of  God.  This 
is  a  study  which  secures  the  right  posture  of  mind, 
not  only  for  calm  judgment,  but  even  for  discovery. 
Here  is  the  touchstone  which  detects  the  alloy  of 
error.  Here  only  we  find  positive  conclusions  which 
are  indubitable.  The  sacred  writings  are  a  moral  dis 
cipline,  and  promote  holy  states  which  are  favourable 
to  the  apprehension  and  belief  of  truth.  JSTo  one  can 
fully  estimate  how  much  they  prevent  frivolous  and 
aimless  reasonings,  by  keeping  the  mind  constantly 
in  the  presence  of  the  greatest  objects.  The  attain 
ments  here  made  belong  to  real  knowledge  ;  and  thus 

*  "First  Series  of  Christian  Theology,"  p.  7.    London,  1854. 


207 


we  have  returned  to  the  principal  topic,  which  we 
discussed  in  the  opening  of  these  remarks. 

What  has  been  urged  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs, 
will,  as  we  are  fully  aware,  be  little  inviting  to  many 
an  ambitious  scholar.  Genuine  love  of  truth  is  not 
universal.  Great  numbers  even  of  good  men  labour 
for  knowledge  of  the  vehicle ;  books,  citations,  mas 
ters,  authority,  learning  as  distinct  from  science.  This 
has  its  subsidiary  value,  like  the  study  of  words  ;  but 
as  an  end,  it  belongs  to  inferior  minds.  The  tendency 
may  be  detected  by  its  shibboleths  ;  the  talk  of  such 
scholars  is  altogether  of  verbal  definitions,  sedes  quces- 
tionutn,  debates,  controversial  results,  treatises,  formu 
laries,  the  bibliography  of  subjects.  ~VVe  would  not 
undervalue  these  things,  when  kept  among  instru 
ments.  But  this  sort  of  research  affords  only  knowl 
edge  to  tell  and  to  be  talked  of,  to  get  benefit  by ; 
ambitious  knowledge,  anything  but  knowledge  for 
itself.  The  quality  of  such  attainment  is  inferior  ;  it 
is  shell,  husk,  integument.  It  is  not  fixed  and  perma 
nent,  but  resting  too  much  in  words,  being  lost  if  the 
words  be  changed.  Men  of  this  school  are  presently 
gravelled,  if  pushed  back  a  step  or  two,  out  of  their 
authors  and  formulas,  into  the  nature  of  things.  Such 
a  one  will  be  found  rehearsing  formulas,  or  slightly 
varying  them.  The  evil  is  fostered  by  setting  inordi 
nate  value  on  mere  reading,  and  by  giving  the  rein  to 


208  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

literary  curiosity.  Take  a  weak  mind  and  innate  it 
with  books,  and  you  produce  a  pitiable  theologian. 
Every  one  can  recall  some  bookish  man  who  is  at  the 
same  time  shallow.  His  glory  is  in  citation.  "Where 
there  is  no  determinate  judgment^  great  knowledge 
tends  only  to  vacillation,  debility,  concession  when 
pressed,  and  frequent  change  of  opinion.  The  entire 
mental  furniture  of  such  a  scholar  is  a  kind  of  nomi 
nalism.  He  is  a  treasury  of  arbitrary  distinctions, 
classifications,  commonplaces.  His  questions  are, 
"Who  has  said  it  ?  "Who  has  opposed  it  ?  Where  is  it 
found  ?  How  expressed  ?  This  is  the  history  of  truth, 
rather  than  truth  itself.  Except  in  the  sense  of  re 
membering,  this  person  can  scarcely  be  said  to  think 
without  a  book  in  his  hand.  "We  see  to  what  extremes 
this  sort  of  cortical  or  formal  knowledge  may  run,  in 
the  case  of  Jewish  scholars,  Marsorites,  and  second- 
rate  papists.  All  is  textual.  The  disposition  is  en 
couraged  by  what  university-men  call  cramming,  and 
by  all  undigested  learning. 

It  is  possible  that  in  our  zeal  to  brand  a  prevalent 
evil,  we  have  dwelt  too  much  on  the  negative  side. 
For  there  is  another  kind  of  knowledge,  and  another 
ministerial  discipline.  We  sometimes  find  it  in  un 
learned  men  ;  and  always  in  those  men  in  whom  pon 
derous  erudition  has  not  smothered  the  native  powers ; 
such  were  Augustine,  Calvin,  Bacon,  Owen,  Horsley, 


THE  PREACHER'S  STUDIES.  209 

and  Foster.  The  learned  man  who  comes  to  this, 
comes  to  it  through  and  beyond  his  learning.  He  at 
tains  to  the  "  clear  ideas "  of  Locke.  By  patient 
thinking  he  disentangles  the  body  of  truth  from  its 
lettered  and  pictured  integuments,  of  authority,  trea 
tise,  and  phrase.  Perhaps  a  long  period  has  been 
necessary,  in  order  to  learn  terms,  and  read  the  tenets 
of  other  men ;  and  here  many  rest,  though  genius 
sometimes  shortens  this  period.  But  true  science  is 
not  tied  to  certain  phrases.  The  theologian,  above  all 
men,  should  possess  insight.  It  should  $ot  be  said  of 
him,  Hceret  in  cortice.  The  matter  is  not  helped  when 
weak  but  adventurous  minds  fly  away  from  received 
formulas  :  the  received  formula  may  contain  truth ; 
the  new  formula  may  be  as  blindly  and  slavishly  re 
peated  as  the  old.  The  difference  lies  deeper  than 
this.  There  is  a  discipline  of  mind  which  leads  to 
genuine  knowledge ;  which  does  not  exclude  erudition, 
but  works  through  it  to  something  higher.  It  is  ut 
terly  remote  from  the  idle  musings  of  sundry,  who 
absurdly  boast  that  they  are  always  thinking,  but 
never  read.  It  trains  the  mental  eye  to  look  through 
diction  to  essential  truth ;  by  which  habit  the  student's 
notions  become  his  own,  and  when  afterwards  ex 
pressed,  however  simply,  bear  the  stamp  of  originality. 
It  conduces  to  sincere  thirst  for  truth,  as  truth,  in  dis 
regard  of  fame,  of  authority,  of  men,  and  of  conse- 


210  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

quences ;  and  is,  therefore,  opposed  to  sectarian  fire, 
bigotry,  worship  of  masters,  and  pedantry.  It  ceases 
to  swim  with  corks,  and  breaks  away  from  the  shal 
lows  of  mere  memory  and  rhetoric.  Strength  of 
judgment  and  firmness  of  conviction  are  its  results. 
The  mind  thus  taught  does  not  allow  doubts  concern 
ing  unsettled  things  to  agitate  the  foundation  of  things 
already  proved,  but  maintains  its  conquests,  and  leaves 
no  unprotected  fortress  in  the  rear.  Such  is  the  rare 
but  attainable  discipline,  which  we  would  covet  for 
every  minister  of  the  word. 

There  is  strong  inducement  to  order  one's  studies 
in  the  way  here  recommended,  in  the  further  consider 
ation,  that  it  leads  directly  to  every  good  quality  in 
the  great  work  of  preaching.  The  average  of  any 
man's  sermons  will  be  as  the  character  of  his  general 
thinking.  A  good  discourse  is  not  so  much  the  pro 
duct  of  the  week's  preparation,  as  of  the  whole  ante 
cedent  studies  and  discipline ;  it  flows  not  from  the 
pitcher,  but  the  deep  well.  Hence  that  celebrated 
preacher  spake  a  weighty  thing,  who,  on  being  asked 
how  long  it  took  him  to  make  a  certain  sermon,  re 
plied,  "  About  twenty  years." 

The  subject  commends  itself  to  a  class,  who  consti 
tute  the  strength  of  our  American  Church  ;  we  mean 
the  rural  clergy,  dispersed  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  often  in  small  parishes.  The  his- 


211 


tory  both  of  England  and  of  New  England  will  evince, 
that  some  of  the  profoundest  thinkers  have  become 
such  in  precisely  these  circumstances.  It  is  a  vulgar 
error  to  suppose  that  city  pastors  are  in  the  most  fa 
vourable  situation  for  mental  culture.  Their  labours 
are  great,  their  public  and  executive  duties  are  many, 
their  interruptions  are  vexatious,  and  hence  their  time, 
especially  for  prolonged  reflection,  is  little  at  their  own 
disposal.  No  man  can  be  so  happily  placed  for  men 
tal  culture  as  the  pastor  of  a  retired  country  parish. 
He  may  pursue  the  uninterrupted  studies,  which 
formed  a  Bochart,  a  Philip  Henry,  an  Edwards,  and  a 
Dwight.  Even  worldly  observers  have  looked  with 
envy  on  such  a  seclusion. 

The  entire  current  of  our  remark  has  presupposed 
that  the  studies  of  the  young  pastor  are  sacred  and 
biblical.  Instances  occur  of  clergymen  who  have  de 
voted  their  strength  to  secular  literature  and  science. 
Cardinal  Wiseman,  in  his  later  series  of  Essays,  de 
livers  some  severe  blows  at  those  Anglican  dignitaries 
whose  chief  laurels  have  been  won  in  mathematics, 
natural  history,  and  the  minute  criticism  of  Greek 
plays.  A  well-known  clergyman  of  our  own  country  is 
remembered  only  as  a  consummate  botanist.  Such 
men  are  contributors  to  the  stock  of  general  knowl 
edge,  but  they  are  scarcely  to  be  accounted  faithful  to 
the  imperative  demands  of  an  age  and  country  like 


212  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

our  own.  "  Our  office,"  says  Cecil,  "  is  the  most  la 
borious  in  the  world.  The  mind  must  be  always  on 
the  stretch,  to  acquire  wisdom  and  grace,  and  to  com 
municate  them  to  all  who  come  near.  It  is  well,  in 
deed,  wThen  a  clergyman  of  genius  and  learning  de 
votes  himself  to  the  publication  of  classics  and  works 
of  literature,  if  he  cannot  be  prevailed  to  turn  his 
genius  and  learning  to  a  more  important  end.  Enter 
into  this  kind  of  society — what  do  you  hear  ?  i  Have 
you  seen  the  new  edition  of  Sophocles  ? ' — i  ~No  !  is  a 
new  edition  of  Sophocles  undertaken  ? ' — and  this 
makes  up  the  conversation,  and  these  are  the  ends  of 
men  who  by-  profession  should  win  souls.  I  received 
a  most  useful  hint  from  Dr.  Bacon,  then  Father  of  the 
University,  when  I  was  at  college.  I  used  frequently 
to  visit  him  at  his  living,  near  Oxford.  He  would  say 
to  me, c  What  are  you  doing  ?  what  are  your  studies  2 ' 
— c  I  am  reading  so  and  so.' — c  You  are  quite  wrong. 
When  I  was  young,  I  could  turn  any  piece  of  Hebrew 
into  Greek  verse  with  ease.  But  when  I  came  into 
this  parish,  and  had  to  teach  ignorant  people,  I  was 
wholly  at  a  loss  ;  I  had  no  furniture.  Study  chiefly 
what  you  can  turn  to  good  account  in  your  future 
life.' '  To  which  may  be  added  the  remark  of  a  pro 
found  observer,  Dr.  Witherspoon :  "  It  is,  in  my  opin 
ion,  not  any -honour  to  a  minister  to  be  very  famous 
in  any  branch  that  is  wholly  unconnected  with  the- 


ology,"  We  cite  these  eminent  authorities,  in  the 
full  persuasion  that  they  are  not  opposed  to  the  most 
thorough  acquaintance  with  worldly  learning  and 
philosophy  as  subsidiary  to  the  defence  and  exposition 
of  the  gospel.  But  these  are  not  so  to  usurp  the  time 
and  heart  as  to  make  the  Christian  minister  distinc 
tively  a  man  of  science  or  letters.  And  we  admit, 
also,  a  valid  exception  in  favour  of  such  collateral 
pursuits  as  are  for  recreation,  in  the  intervals  of 
labour. 

Valuable  authorship  has  in  every  period  of  the 
Church  been  found  among  the  parochial  ministry. 
This  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  the. young  pastor,  in 
expectation  of  the  day  when  he  shall  act  upon  Lord 
Bacon's  oft  quoted  adage,  that  every  man  owes  a  debt 
to  his  own  profession.  ISTew  generations  of  men  de 
mand  new  books,  even  upon  old  subjects.  No  works 
of  the  pen  are  more  honourable  than  those  which  dis 
close  a  sincere  interest  in  the  good  of  one's  country 
men,  and  a  desire  to  apply  scriptural  principles  to 
national  emergencies.  Questions  of  true  philan 
thropy  continue  to  be  safest  in  the  hands  of  Christ's 
ministers.  At  the  same  time,  the  ordinary  topics  of 
theology  and  morals  invite  the  attention  of  all  whose 
hearts  God  hath  touched,  even  though  they  dwell  re 
mote  from  city  or  college. 

*  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  19. 


214  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

If  we  had  not  already  trespassed  on  the  reader's 
patience,  we  should  take  pleasure  in  examining  the 
question  how  far  the  authorship  of  the  Christian 
Church  has  resided  among  the  working  pastors.  Let 
us  say  without  fear  of  contradiction,  the  great  and 
useful  works  of  religious  literature  have  not  proceeded 
exclusively  from  professional  savans,  scholars,  or  uni 
versity-men.  The  inquiry  is  a  curious  one,  what 
causes  have  operated  to  give  the  preponderance  in 
literary  production  sometimes  to  one  and  sometimes 
to  the  other  class.  It  may  be  for  the  encouragement 
of  diffident  scholars,  in  distant  and  straitened  fields, 
that  some  of  the  greatest  productions  of  human  genius 
have  issued  from  retirement  and  poverty.  Wealth 
has  seldom  stimulated  to  aught  above  the  caprices  of 
literature.  The  conditions  of  authorship,  as  shared 
between  professors  and  private  scholars,  engaged  the 
acute  mind  of  the  father  of  Political  Economy ; 
whose  remarks  are  worthy  of  all  attention.  Speaking 
of  Europe,  he  observes,  that  where  church-benefices 
are  generally  moderate,  a  university-chair  will  have 
the  preference.  In  the  opposite  case,  the  Church  will 
draw  from  the  universities  the  most  eminent  men  of 
letters.  It  is  declared  by  Yoltaire,  that  Father  Porree, 
a  Jesuit  of  no  great  eminence  in  the  republic  of  let 
ters,  was  the  only  professor  they  had  ever  had  in 
France  whose  works  were  worth  the  reading.  The 


215 


same  remark  is  applicable  to  other  Roman  Catholic 
countries.  After  the  Church  of  Rome,  the  Church 
of  England  is  by  far  the  best  endowed  in  Christendom, 
In  England,  accordingly,  says  Smith,  the  Church  is 
continually  draining  the  universities  of  all  their  best 
and  ablest  members  ;  and  an  old  college  tutor,  who  is 
known  and  distinguished  in  Europe  as  an  eminent 
man  of  letters,  is  as  rarely  to  be  found  there  as  in  any 
Roman  Catholic  country.  "  In  Geneva,  on  the  con 
trary,  in  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland,  in  the 
Protestant  countries  of  Germany,  in  Holland,  in  Scot 
land,  in  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  the  most  eminent  men 
of  letters  whom  those  countries  have  produced,  have, 
not  all  indeed,  but  the  far  greater  part  of  them,  been 
professors  in  universities.  In  those  countries,  the  uni 
versities  are  continually  draining  the  Church  of  all  its 
most  eminent  men  of  letters."  *  These  remarks  have 
an  application  to  the  authorship  of  America,  which 
we  are  compelled  to  leave  to  the  reader's  own  mind. 

But  this  whole  subject  of  authorship  is  only  inci 
dental,  and  these  remarks  have  trickled  from  the  pen 
almost  beyond  our  purpose.  Even  though  the  Chris 
tian  pastor  should  never  send  a  line  to  the  press,  he  is 
continually  engaged  in  literary  production,  and  in  a 
most  important  species  of  publication.  There  is  no 
agency  in  the  world  which  is  more  operative  upon 
*  Wealth  of  Nations,  book  v.  chap.  i. 


216  THOUGHTS   ON   PEE  ACHING. 

society  than  the  faithful  preaching  of  the  gospel ; 
there  is  none  which  demands  more  study,  discipline, 
and  wisdom.  Hence  every  man  who  comprehends 
the  greatness  of  his  vocation  will  recognize  the  mo 
tives  to  unwearied  exertion  in  the  task  of  SBlf-control, 
mental  activity,  and  devoted  inquiry  after  truth. 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING. 

WITHIN  a  recent  period,  there  lias  been  much  ear 
nest  discussion  relative  to  the  manner  of  preaching, 
in  distinction  from  the  matter  of  it.  To  a  certain 
extent,  the  matter  and  manner  of  preaching  inter 
penetrate  and  determine  each  other.  All  matter 
sensuous  and  intellectual  must  exist  in  some  form, 
and,  while  it  remains  unchanged,  is  inseparable  from 
that  form  ;  which  is  only  saying,  that  any  substance 
remaining  what  it  is,  is  inseparable  from  the  qualities 
which  make  it  what  it  is.  So  far,  to  determine  the 
matter  is  to  determine  the  form.  To  determine  that 
the  matter  of  the  human  body  is  an  animal  organism, 
is  so  far  forth  to  determine  its  form.  To  determine 
that  the  matter  of  a  book  shall  be  moral  philosophy, 
geometry,  or  chemistry,  is  so  far  to  determine  its 
form.  To  settle  the  point  that  preaching  shall  be 
scriptural,  philosophical,  doctrinal,  practical,  Pela 
gian,  Calvinistic,  topical,  or  expository  in  its  matter, 
is,  so  far,  to  determine  its  form.  The  discussions  in  re- 
10 


218  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

gard  to  the  manner  of  preaching  to  which  we  allude, 
have  had  respect  to  it,  not  in  points  wherein  it  is  im 
plicated  in  the  matter,  but  to  points  which  are  inde 
pendent  of  it.  They  admit  of  indefinite  variation  in 
proclaiming  essentially  the  same  matter,  the  same 
truths,  thoughts,  reasonings,  in  the  same  order  of  ar 
rangement.  They  relate  to  elocution,  gesticulation, 
the  use  of  manuscripts  in  the  pulpit,  and  whatever  in 
style  or  delivery  affects  the  vivacity  and  impressive- 
ness  of  a  sermon,  which  in  substance  and  matter  is 
essentially  what  it  should  be.  Manner,  in  this  sense, 
and  as  separable  from  the  matter  of  preaching,  (while 
we  by  no  means  underrate  its  importance,)  it  is  no 
part  of  our  present  purpose  to  investigate.  AYe  in 
quire  rather  what  it  is  the  minister's  duty  to  preach, 
and  how  he  shall  do  it,  only  so  far  as  matter  and  form 
mutually  interpenetrate  and  determine  each  other. 
This  is  the  highest  question  for  the  preacher  to  decide. 
It  is  of  great  consequence  how  we  preach.  It  is  of 
still  greater,  what  we  preach,  except  so  far  as  the 
former  involves  the  latter. 

But  is  it,  after  all,  a  question,  or  at  any  rate,  an 
open  question,  among  Christians,  or  if  among  Chris 
tians,  among  orthodox  and  evangelical  Christians, 
who  acknowledge  that  the  preacher's  commission  is 
to  preach  the  gospel,  and  that  he  fulfils  his  duty  only 
so  far  as  he  preaches  the  word,  the  whole  word,  and 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  219 

nothing  but  the  word  ?     Can  it  be  an  open  question 
among  those  who  accept  the  Reformed  confessions  as 
faithful  summaries  of  the  teachings  of  revelation  ?     In 
one  sense,  this  is  not  an  open  question  among  any 
who  can  of  right  be  called  Christians.     Still  less  room 
for  debate  remains  among  those  who  agree  in  that 
interpretation  of  Scripture   which   makes    salvation 
wholly  of  grace.     But  even  among  these,  there  is  a 
vast  diversity,  not  merely  in  the  style  of  their  preach 
ing,  but  in  the  matter  or  substance  of  it.     This  does 
not  imply  that  they  necessarily  contradict  one  an 
other.       It  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  any  im 
pugn,  or  even  that  they  do  not  confess  and  abide  by 
every  article  of  the   Confession  in  their  discourses. 
But  it  implies  something  more  than  that  diversity  of 
gifts,  by  which  different  men  are  endowed  with  special 
qualifications  for  commending  the  same  gospel  to  dif 
ferent  classes  of  minds.     The  difference  lies  in  the  dif 
ferent  proportions,  surroundings,  applications  in  which 
they  set  forth  the  different  elements  of  the  same  body 
of  truth ;    in  what  they  signalize  by  frequent   and 
emphatic   iteration,    and   what   they  omit  or   touch 
lightly  and  charily,  and  in  the  foreign  matter  with 
which  they  illustrate,  obscure,  or  encumber  it.     How 
else  shall  we  account  for  the  fact  that  one  preacher 
has  power  chiefly  in  the  aptness  and  force  of  his  ap 
peals  to  the  impenitent ;  another,  in  awakening  de- 


220  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

vout  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  Christians ;  a  third,  in 
his  lucid  statement  and  unanswerable  vindication  of 
Christian  doctrines  ;  a  fourth,  in  the  enforcement  of 
the  moralities  of  the  gospel ;  a  fifth,  in  his  extraordi 
nary  tact  at  working  up  occasional,  miscellaneous, 
and  semi-secular  sermons  ?  Even  among  those  then, 
who  acknowledge  fealty  to  the  great  principle  of 
preaching  the  word,  it  is  still  an  open  question,  in 
what  proportions,  surroundings,  applications,  and 
other  circumstances,  this  word  and  the  various  parts 
thereof  shall  be  preached.  And  this  question  will 
bear  long  pondering  by  all  who  have  assumed  the 
awful,  yet  glorious  office  of  watching  for  souls,  and 
are  bound  to  distribute  to  each  a  portion  in  due  sea 
son.  For  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ? 

At  the  outset,  we  may  safely  postulate,  1.  That 
the  Scriptures  themselves  exhibit  the  various  elements 
of  divine  truth,  in  the  relative  proportions  in  which  it 
is  the  preacher's  duty  to  teach  and  enforce  them. 

2.  That  they  are  also  an  infallible  guide  as  to  the 
mutual  relations  and  practical  applications  of  these 
truths  ;  and  that,  while  the  manner  of  exhibiting  and 
illustrating  them  requires  adaptation  to  the  present 
circumstances  and  habits  of  thought  among  the  peo 
ple,  they  may  not   be  intrinsically  modified  by  al 
teration,  suppression,  or  addition. 

3.  That  the  preacher  fulfils  his  mission  just  and 


THE  MATTER  OF  PKEACHING.  221 

only  as  his  preaching  causes  these  truths  to  be  known 
and,  through  grace,  operative  among  his  hearers. 

4.  That  all  other  acquirements,  attractions,  graces, 
or  means  of  power  and  influence  in  a  preacher,  are 
legitimate  and  valuable  in  proportion  as  they  sub 
serve  this  end ;  and  any  sources  of  power  in  the 
pulpit,  aside  of  this,  no  way  contribute  to  the  dis 
charge  of  his  mission.  Their  tendency  is  to  super 
sede,  and  thus,  in  various  degrees,  to  hinder  or  de 
feat  it. 

Finally :  The  great  end  of  preaching  is  to  glorify 
God  and  bless  man,  by  bringing  sinners  to  the  "  obe 
dience  of  faith  "  in  Christ,  and  promoting  their  sanctifi- 
cation,  their  knowledge,  love,  and  adoration  of  God  ; 
their  assimilation,  conformity,  and  devotion  to  him, 
in  thought,  desire,  word,  and  deed  ;  their  cordial  and 
delighted  communion  with  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost ;  their  love,  gentleness,  meekness,  patience, 
uprightness,  and  faithfulness  towards  their  fellow- 
men.  In  a  word,  the  great  end  of  preaching,  with 
respect  to  men,  is  to  advance  them  "  in  all  holy  con 
versation  and  godliness." 

Starting  with  these  premises,  which  must  be  their 
own  evidence  to  all  who  concede  that  our  sole  com 
mission  from  Christ  is  to  preach  the  word,  it  results  : 

1.  That  God  should  be  the  great,  overshadowing 
object  set  forth  in  the  preacher's  message.  All 


222  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

preaching  that  violates  this  precept  must  be  vicious. 
This  appears  from  every  side  and  aspect  in  which  the 
subject  can  be  viewed.  To  say,  as  we  shall  say,  that 
Christ  should  be  the  burden  of  the  preacher's  mes 
sage,  does  not  contradict,  it  re-affirms  this  principle. 
For  Christ  is  God.  In  preaching  Christ,  we  simply 
preach  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  him 
self,  not  imputing  their  trespasses.  Whether  we  set 
forth  the  Father,  the  Son,  or  the  Holy  Ghost,  either 
one  of  the  Three,  or  the  Three  in  One,  we  directly 
and  immediately  hold  forth  God,  and  none  else.  Now, 
if  we  look  at  the  Bible  or  its  inspired  preachers  as 
models,  we  find  God  always  and  everywhere  in  the 
foreground.  Indeed  the  highest  evidence  of  its  divin 
ity  is  the  radiance  of  God  upon  it.  He  is  the  first 
and  the  last,  shining  in  it,  through  it,  and  from  it. 
Its  words  are  not  those  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth, 
and  it  speaks  as  never  man  spake.  Another  consider 
ation  is,  that  the  word  to  be  preached  is  the  word  of 
God.  It  emanates  from  him  exclusively.  It  is  to  be 
enjoined  in  his  name,  and  by  his  authority.  It  can 
not  be  truly  received,  or  produce  its  due  saving  effect, 
unless  it  be  received  "  not  as  the  word  of  man,  but 
as  it  is  in  truth,  the  word  of  God,  which  worketh 
effectually  in  them  that  believe."  1  Thess.  ii.  13. 
So  the  preacher  is  the  ambassador  of  God.  Can  he 
then  truly  deliver  his  message,  unless  He  in  whose* 


THE  MATTER  OF  PEEACHING.  223 

behalf  lie  pleads  be  the  prominent  object  in  his  incul 
cations  ? 

Still  further  :  The  truths  which  the  Bible  unfolds 
are  truths  relating  to  God,  in  his  nature  and  attri 
butes,  his  works  and  ways  ;  or  they  concern  us  in  our 
relations  to  him  as  our  Creator,  Preserver,  Sovereign, 
Redeemer,  and  Judge ;  or  they  respect  the  relations 
and  obligations  of  men  to  each  other,  which  in  turn 
depend  upon  their  common  relation  to  the  one  God 
and  Lord  of  all.  Herein  are  contained  all  the  doc 
trines,  and  hence  arise  all  the  duties  of  our  religion. 
How  then  can  they  be  adequately  set  forth  in  any 
form  of  sermonizing  which  does  not  make  God  all 
in  all  ? 

If  we  consider  the  duties  or  attainments  required 
in  the  Bible,  they  all  have  God  for  their  object  and 
end.  The  love,  the  desires,  the  worship,  the  peni 
tence,  the  sorrow,  the  self-renunciation,  the  devotion 
required,  are  no  otherwise  genuine  than  as  they  have 
supreme  respect  to  God.  Our  duties  to  men  have 
their  strongest  bond  in  his  requirements,  and  are  only 
acceptable  when  done  as  unto  the  Lord  :  "  Not  with 
eye-service,  as  men-pleasers ;  but  as  the  servants  of 
Christ,  doing  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart."  What 
better  then  than  a  mere  counterfeit  of  Christian  teach 
ing  can  we  have,  when  God  is  not  made  its  Alpha 
and  Omega  ? 


224:  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

Besides,  all  disposition,  ability,  efficiency  for  at 
taining  the  favour  or  doing  the  will  of  God,  are  the 
gifts  of  his  sovereign  grace.  Whatever  we  are,  or 
have,  or  do,  that  is  acceptable  to  God,  or  in  the  least 
meets  his  requirements,  by  the  grace  of  God  we  are 
what  we  are.  All  is  of  God.  All  must  come  from 
God.  To  God  belongs  all  the  glory.  To  God  we 
must  look  for  every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift. 
When  he  withdraws,  our  comforts  droop,  and  all  our 
graces  die.  Is  it  conceivable,  then,  that  the  religion 
of  God  can  be  inculcated,  except  as  he  himself  is 
magnified  ?  And  is  not  this  view  thrice  confirmed, 
when  we  consider  that  the  declared  end  of  the  whole 
method  of  our  salvation  is  that  God  may  be  glorified, 
the  issue  of  the  whole  is  to  be,  that  God  shall  be 
visibly,  as  he  is  really,  all  in  all  ? 

Many,  doubtless,  will  be  ready  to  say  that  we 
have  been  vindicating  a  truism.  We  shall  not  dis 
pute  them.  If  it  be  so,  it  only  proves  our  position 
the  more  impregnable.  It  is  one  of  those  truisms 
that  very  many  need  to  single  out  of  their  neglected 
and  forgotten  commonplaces,  and  to  brighten  it  into 
its  due  lustre,  and  swell  to  its  due  proportions,  by 
surveying  it  afresh,  in  its  deep  grounds  and  infinite 
reach  of  application.  Coleridge  says,  in  the  first,  if 
not  best  aphorism  of  his  Aids  to  Reflection,  that  we 
can  seldom  be  more  usefully  employed,  than  in  "  res- 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  225 

cuing  admitted  truths  from  the  neglect  caused  by 
the  very  circumstance  of  their  universal  admission. 
Extremes  meet.  Truths,  of  all  others  the  most  awful 
and  interesting,  are  too  often  considered  as  so  true, 
that  they  lose  all  the  power  of  truth,  and  lie  bed 
ridden  in  the  dormitory  of  the  soul,  side  by  side  with 
the  most  despised  and  exploded  errors."  That  there 
is  a  difference  as  to  the  extent  to  which  God  is  mag 
nified,  and  the  whole  texture  of  discourse  saturated 
with  the  divine  element,  by  different  preachers,  is 
undeniable.  With  some,  a  sense  of  his  excellency 
and  our  own  littleness  and  vileness  ;  of  the  blessed 
ness  of  his  favour  and  the  terrors  of  his  wrath  ;  of  the 
importance  of  being  prepared  to  meet  him  ;  of  living 
for  his  service  and  glory  :  of  dependence  upon  him 
for  grace,  salvation,  and  blessedness  :  of  the  impossi 
bility  of  finding  true  felicity,  except  in  the  enjoyment 
of  him  forever,  is  the  grand  impression  sought  and 
effected.  With  others,  the  human,  the  worldly,  the 
philosophic,  social,  and  political,  usurp  the  predomi 
nance.  These  are  the  great  objective  elements  that 
loom  up  and  secure  an  obtrusive,  if  not  overshad 
owing  prominence,  in  the  preacher's  unfoldings  and 
inculcations.  Man  and  the  world  appear  so  great, 
that  God  and  heaven  are  scarcely  greater.  And  in 
some  cases  the  preacher  himself  is  foremost  in 
the  group,  and  could  hardly  say  -with  the  Apostle, 


226  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

"  we  preach  not  ourselves,  but  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord."  - 

If,  then,  the  foremost  object  to  be  set  forth  in 
preaching  is  the  Most  High,  in  his  being,  infinitude, 
and  perfection  ;  in  his  works  of  creation,  providence, 
and  grace  ;  in  his  relations  towards  us  as  our  Maker, 
Preserver,  Benefactor,  our  Sovereign,  Saviour  and 
Judge  ;  then  that  preaching  is  neither  biblical,  Chris 
tian,  nor  even  religious,  which  is  not  so  impregnated 
with  this  divine  element,  that  God  is  not  only  its  cen 
tral,  but  pervading  object ;  over  all,  in  all,  through 
all,  of  whom,  and  through  whom,  and  to  whom  are 
all  things,  to  whom  be  glory  forever. 

2.  We  are  thus  prepared  to  understand  the  atti 
tude  in  which  man  should  be  put  by  the  preacher. 
As  the  Bible  is  addressed  to  man,  and  aims  to  bring 
him  to  the  salvation  it  proffers,  i.  e.  to  spiritual  life, 
holiness  and  bliss,  this  is  a  point  of  capital  importance. 

*  We  have  been  credibly  informed  that  two  distinguished  living 
preachers,  when  formerly  stationed  in  the  same  Western  city,  had,  for 
an  occasional  auditor,  an  irreligious  officer  of  the  army.  This  gentle 
man  said  to  our  informant,  that  he  listened  to  the  one  with  the  greater 
pleasure ;  to  the  other  with  less  satisfaction,  but  with  greater  respect 
and  reverence,  if  not  profit.  Being  asked  to  explain  himself,  he  said, 
•'  The  former  exalts  the  dignity  of  man,  and  I  always  come  away 
pleased  with  myself.  The  latter  so  magnifies  God,  that  I  seem  noth 
ing,  and  I  always  seem  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  my  own  insignifi 
cance  and  unworthiness."  If  preaching  is  to  be  estimated  by  the 
crowds  it  draws,  we  believe  this  man-exalting  divine  is  now  facile 
princeps  among  American  preachers. 


THE   MATTER    OF   PREACHING.  227 

But  it  is  needless  here  to  investigate  anthropology. 
The  great  object  of  the  preacher  should  be  to  make 
him  know  and  feel  that  he  is  a  dependent,  rational, 
and  accountable  creature,  owing  fealty  to  his  Maker 
— that  he  was  made  to  love,  serve,  commune  with, 
and  enjoy  him  ;  that  herein  is  life  and  bliss,  and  that 
alienation  from  God  by  sin  is  death  and  woe.  These 
truths,  the  more  earnestly  they  are  pressed,  find  a 
responsive  attestation  in  every  conscience  not  seared 
as  with  a  hot  iron.  And  they  are  all  the  more  felt, 
in  proportion  as  God  is  apprehended  in  his  goodness 
and  holiness,  his  sovereignty  and  omniscience.  But 
while  this  is  fundamental  and  conditional  to  any  re 
ligion  whatever,  it  underlies  another  truth  wThich  is 
cardinal  in  Christianity.  "We  of  course  refer  to  man's 
fallen  state,  including  sin,  guilt,  misery,  helplessness. 
In  general  it  may  be  affirmed,  that  men  will  realize 
all  this,  just  in  proportion  as  they  see  and  feel  what 
God  is.  But  in  order  to  set  forth  God  effectually  for 
this  purpose,  his  law,  which  mirrors  his  perfections  in 
his  requirements  of  man,  must  be  proclaimed  in  its 
spirituality  and  searching  import,  in  its  precept  and 
penalty,  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept. 
The  express  law  of  God  is  but.  a  formal  republication 
of  the  law  written  by  nature  011  the  heart,  although 
often  forgotten,  disowned,  and  obscured  under  the 
mists  of  sin.  But  still  it  is  written  there,  although 


228  THOUGHTS    ON    PEE  ACHING. 

sin  has  blurred  the  record.  .And  when  it  is  pro 
claimed  in  its  full  import  and  awful  sanctions,  it  finds 
an  echo  and  witness  in  the  conscience,  that  having 
been  drowsed  into  oblivion  of  it,  is  awakened  to  be 
hold  it.  The  lightnings  of  Sinai  bring  out  in  visible 
distinctness  the  writing  before  invisibly  traced  on  the 
conscience.  For  "  the  conscience  meanwhile  bears 
witness."  They  know  the  judgment  of  God,  that 
they  which  commit  such  things  are  worthy  of  death. 
"With  all  the  world  they  become  consciously  guilty 
(vTToBifcoi)  before  God.  We  have  reason  to  fear  that 
too  much  of  our  current  preaching  is  more  or  less 
emasculated  by  a  deficiency  here.  "We  are  no  legal 
ists.  Neither  are  we  antinomian.  The  law  must  be 
proclaimed,  not  for  the  purpose  of  showing  us  how 
we  can,  but  that  we  cannot,  obtain  life,  according 
to  its  requirements.  It  is  the  grand  instrument  for 
producing  conviction  of  sin.  "  By  the  law  is  the 
knowledge  of  sin."  It  is  only  as  the  law,  in  its 
breadth  of  precept  and  awfulness  of  penalty,  is  ap 
prehended  and  witnessed  by  the  conscience,  that  con 
viction  of  sin  is  felt,  that  self-righteous  hopes  are  ex 
tinguished,  or  that  men  are  driven  from  all  other 
refuges  to  Christ.  None  will  thirst  for  or  flee  to  the 
Saviour  till  they  see  their  case  to  be  hopeless  without 
him.  The  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they  that 
are  sick.  But  this  conviction  can  be  effected  only  by 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.          229 

manifestation  of  the  law  which  makes  it  evident  that 
by  violating  its  precept  they  are  subject  to  its  curse, 
so  it  becomes  a  .schoolmaster  which  leads  to  Christ. 
Thus  Paul  was  alive,  i.  e.  confident  of  gaining  eternal 
life,  without  the  law  once.  But  when  the  command 
ment  came,  sin  revived,  and  he  died.  It  slew  him. 
Its  manifestations  under  the  light  of  the  law  were  the 
death  of  all  his  hopes.  And  he  further  shows  that 
this  was  accomplished  only  by  a  view  of  the  spiritual 
and  heart-searching  elements  of  the  law.  For  he 
says,  "  I  had  not  known  sin  but  by  the  law  ;  I  had 
not  known  lust  except  the  law  had  said,  Thou  shalt 
not  covet."  It  is  when  the  law  gleams  and  thunders, 
that  sinners  in  Zion  are  afraid,  and  fearful  ness  sur 
prises  the  hypocrites.  And  it  is  only  when  thus 
"  pricked  in  the  heart  "  by  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
that  they  will  ask,  What  shall  we  do  to  be  saved  ? 

The  law  is  no  less  indispensable,  of  course,  as  a 
rule  of  life  to  Christians.  It  is  the  standard  of  excel 
lence  to  which  they  must  aspire.  They  can  neither 
have  nor  give  evidence  that  they  are  Christians,  un 
less  they  are  striving  after  conformity  to  this  perfect 
standard.  The  very  end  of  their  election,  redemption, 
calling,  is  that  they  may  be  holy  as  God  is  holy — a 
peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works.  In  propor 
tion  as  their  communion  with  God  becomes  perfect, 
they  will  be  perfect  in  holiness.  But  holiness  is  nolh- 


230  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

ing  else  than  conformity  to  the  law  of  God.  It  is 
true  that  we  do  not  thus  seek  a  title  to  eternal  life. 
But  thus  alone  can  that  life,  gratuitously  bestowed, 
exist  or  manifest  itself.  Thus  alone  can  we  become 
attempered  to,  or  capable  of,  the  joys  of  heaven.  Al 
though  released  from  the  law  as  a  condition  of  life, 
yet  the  Christian  joyfully  embraces  it  as  a  rule  of 
living.  He  does  so,  because  by  the  instinct  of  his 
gracious  nature,  he  loves  the  law  of  God  after  the  in 
ward  man,  and  because  the  adoption  to  sonship, 
which  is  freely  given  him  in  Christ,  enables  and  dis 
poses  him  to  obey  it  with  filial  freedom,  love,  and 
confidence.  He  is  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under 
law  to  Christ.  Having  these  promises,  he  cleanses 
himself  from  all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  per 
fecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God. 

These  commonplaces  only  need  stating,  so  far  as 
the  principle  involved  in  them  is  concerned.  The 
chief  questions  which  arise,  respect  the  manner  of 
carrying  it  out.  It  is  here  we  judge  that  the  most 
serious  deficiency  will  be  often  found  in  preaching — 
a  deficiency  which  too  often  dulls  its  edge  and  de 
stroys  its  penetrative  power.  Many  insist  strenuously 
on  the  law,  as  the  standard  of  goodness,  which  is  ever 
more  binding  on  all  rational  beings.  They  thunder 
its  curses  upon  unbelievers.  They  insist  upon  all 
Christians  making  it  the  rule  of  life.  Yet  after  all,  it 


THE   MATTEK   OF   PKE  ACHING.  231 

fails  of  its  due  effect  in  alarming  the  unconverted, 
and  purifying  the  hearts  and  lives  of  Christians.  In 
short,  it  does  not  reach,  enlighten,  or  awaken  the  con 
science.  Why  ?  because  it  is  not  unfolded  and  de 
fined  in  its  import  and  applications  to  the  manifold 
relations  of  our  inner  and  outer  life,  and  the  modes  of 
thinking,  feeling,  and  acting  therein  required.  ~No 
clear  lines  of  discrimination  are  drawn,  showing  pre 
cisely  where  duty  begins  and  ends,  and  where  sin 
commences  either  in  the  form  of  omission  or  commis 
sion.  It  is  one  thing  to  denounce  the  curse  of  the 
law  against  the  transgressor.  It  is  another  to  de 
nounce  profaneness,  or  taking  God's  name  in  vain, 
as  a  heinous  sin.  But  it  is  yet  another,  and  a  very 
different  thing,  to  point  out  in  clear  and  graphic  de 
lineation  the  various  ways  in  which  this  command  is 
violated  in  thought,  word  and  deed,  and  to  show  the 
criteria  which  distinguish  the  lawful  from  the  profane 
treatment  of  things  divine.  This  cannot  be  done, 
without  giving  the  knowledge  of  sins  before  unknown 
or  unheeded,  while  it  relieves  the  conscience  of  the 
sincere  believer,  not  only  by  defining  his  duty,  but 
by  showing  what  is  not  sin,  and  thus  loosing  him  from 
the  fetters  of  morbid  scruples  and  groundless  despon 
dency.  The  latter  object  is  often  scarcely  less  impor 
tant  than  the  former.  Many  Christians  go  limping 
and  halting  all  their  days,  in  the  fetters  of  a  Judaical, 


232  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

Pharisaic,  or  ceremonial  spirit ;  or  of  a  superscrip- 
tural  strictness  and  severity  on  some  one  or  more 
points  of  Christian  morality.  This  may  make  them 
harsh,  sour,  censorious,  dejected,  uncomfortable  to 
themselves  and  their  brethren.  But  such  weights  and 
consequent  besetting  sins  must  be  laid  aside,  before 
they  can  run  with  patience  and  joy  the  Christian  race. 
Instead  of  mounting  up  on  wings  as  eagles,  they  grow 
weary,  and  their  soul  cleaveth  to  the  dust.  Those 
who  undertake  to  be  more  righteous  than  God's  law, 
in  any  respect,  will  be  sure  to  compensate  their  work 
of  supererogation  by  greater  license  in  some  other 
form  of  sin.  We  once  knew  a  candidate  for  the  min 
istry  who  denounced  as  a  sin,  eating  meat,  and  drink 
ing  tea  and  coffee,  and,  if  we  remember  right,  any 
violation  of-  Professor  Hitchcock's  prescriptions  for 
avoiding  dyspepsia.  He  ended  with  becoming  the 
hierophant  of  a  conventicle  of  free-love  Perfectionists, 
and  doing  what  he  might,  to  turn  temples  into 
brothels.  Take  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  in  regard  to 
superiors  and  inferiors,  indeed,  the  whole  decalogue, 
and  let  it  be  so  expounded,  denned,  and  applied,  that 
men  must  see  not  only  what  is,  but  what  is  not  a  vio 
lation  of  it — let  the  preaching  of  duty  be  clear,  thor 
ough,  didactic,  casuistic — and  would  it  not  oftener 
leave  the  arrows  of  the  Lord  sharp  and  rankling  in 
the  hearts  of  his  enemies,  and  promote  beyond  meas- 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  233 

ure  the  sanctification,  the  blamelessness,  the  useful 
ness  of  Christians  ?  Is  it  not  thus,  and  not  otherwise, 
that  the  word  becomes  sharper  than  any  two-edged 
sword,  piercing  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  the  joints 
and  marrow,  and  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  in 
tents  of  the  heart  ?  So  is  it,  and  not  otherwise,  that 
it  becomes  profitable  not  merely  for  doctrine,  but 
"  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  right 
eousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thor 
oughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 

These  principles  with  regard  to  the  inculcation  of  the 
law,  apply  of  course,  mutatis  mutandis,  to  the  whole 
sphere  of  evangelical  duty  ;  i.  e.  of  duty  as  amplified 
in  its  scope,  as  modified  in  its  source,  rule  and  end, 
by  the  gospel.  This  is  only  saying  that  in  summon 
ing  men  to  do  their  duty,  we  ought  to  explain  and 
define  so  clearly  as  to  preclude  all  mistake,  what  duty 
is.*  It  is  simply  asserting  the  didactic  element  in 

*  It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  enter  a  caveat  against  straining  this 
maxim  beyond  the  bounds  of  reason  and  even  possibility.  Even  the 
applications  of  principles  can  be  given  by  the  preacher  only  in  deriva 
tive  principles  of  greater  or  less  generality.  He  cannot  go  into  the 
particular  questions  of  fact,  on  which,  in  each  case,  the  question  of 
duty  depends.  To  do  so,  would  be  to  teach  all  knowledge,  which  is 
impossible,  while  the  attempt  to  do  it  would  be  worse  than  ridiculous. 
Thus,  that  it  is  a  duty  to  keep  our  promises,  and  to  make  none  which 
are  unlawful,  or  beyond  our  power  to  fulfil ;  and  consequently  that 
none  ought  to  undertake  the  practice  of  law,  medicine,  statesmanship, 
or  any  calling,  without  competent  qualifications  to  do  aright,  what  they 
thus  promise  to  do,  is  evidently  within  the  province  of  the  pulpit.  But 


234:  THOUGHTS   ON   PKEACHING. 

preaching,  which  in  the  light  of  reason  and  scripture 
must  needs  be  an  integral  and  fundamental  part  of  it. 
The  commission  given  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,  is  given  by  another  evangelist  as  a  com 
mission  to  teach  all  nations  to  do  and  observe  all 
Christ's  commands.  The  instructions  given  to  Timo 
thy  and  Titus  terminate  very  much  in  showing  them 
whom,  what,  and  how  they  shall  teach. 

We  have  dwelt  the  longer  on  this  point,  because 
we  are  persuaded  that  not  a  few  are  labouring  under 
certain  misconceptions  regarding  it,  which  impair 
their  vigour  and  usefulness  as  preachers.  It  is  a  vul 
gar  notion  that  all  didactic  preaching  is  dry  and  un 
interesting.  Hence  many  have  deep  prejudice  against 
what  they  style  doctrinal  preaching.  They  crave 
warmth  and  life.  They  want  earnest,  hortatory  dis 
course.  They  deem  this  practical  and  profitable. 
But  let  practice  be  urged  in  an  instructive  way,  which 
displays  its  grounds,  reach,  and  limits  ;  which  pro 
duces  not  merely  some  vague  excitement,  but  shows 
them  what  they  ought  to  be  and  do,  and  they  stig- 


who  will  say,  that  it  is  within  its  province  to  teach  law,  medicine,  poli 
tics,  engineering,  or  bricklaying  ?  Such  knowledge,  without  which 
none  .can  do  their  duty  in  these  callings,  must  be  learnt  elsewhere.  To 
lecture  on  Hydropathy  and  Allopathy,  the  merits  of  our  various  politi 
cal  parties,  old  line  and  new  line,  straight  and  crooked,  on  the  right 
method  of  tailoring,  or  plastering,  is  not  to  teach  or  preach  the  gospel, 
and  if  done  under  colour  thereof,  it  is  simply  a  desecration. 


THE   MATTEK   OF    PREACHING.  235 

matize  it  as  dull,  didactic,  and  doctrinal.  We  do  not 
dispute  that  there  may  be  instructive  preachers,  who 
by  their  jejune  style  and  frigid  manner,  are  obnoxious 
to  this  complaint.  This  might  happen,  whatever  the 
matter  of  the  sermon.  But  in  many  cases  the  objec 
tion  is  aimed  at  the  things  said,  not  the  manner  of 
saying  them.  It  is  related  of  the  late  Professor 
Stuart,  that  during  his  short  but  efficient  pastorate, 
he  dwelt  much  on  certain  doctrines  of  grace,  which 
had  been  neglected  or  disparaged  by  his  predecessor. 
The  people  were  roused.  Some  said  one  thing  and 
some  another.  The  result,  however,  was,  that  his 
preaching  was  in  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
of  power  ;  his  church  w^as  filled  with  eager  listeners  ; 
and  experimental  piety  was  greatly  and  permanently 
promoted.  Some  of  his  hearers,  restive  under  a  tone 
of  preaching  to  which  they  were  unused,  begged  him 
to  give  them  less  doctrine,  and  more  practical  ser 
mons,  lie  complied  with  their  request,  and  com 
menced  delivering  clear  and  thorough  expositions  of 
the  divine  law.  In  a  short  time,  however,  the  same 
auditors  waited  upon  him  with  a  request  that  he 
would  return  to  the  doctrines.  They  had  enough  of 
practice.  The  truth  is,  aversion  to  legitimate  preach 
ing,  whether  of  doctrine  or  practice,  originates  in  one 
source.  It  is  simple  aversion  to  truth  in  its  antago 
nism  to  corrupt  nature,  which,  if  doctrinal,  requires  a 


236  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

correspondent  practice ;  if  practical,  has  its  roots  in  a 
correspondent  doctrine.  For  truth  is  in  order  to 
goodness.  Hence  they  prefer  some  transient  and 
blind  excitement  of  feeling,  to  that  discovery  of  truth 
which  alone  can  awaken  sound  evangelical  feeling ; 
which  purifies  while  it  quickens  the  heart,  because  it 
gives  light  to  the  understanding,  and  thus  makes  per 
manently  wiser  and  better.  We  have  said  that  preach 
ers  are  in  danger  of  being  influenced  by  this  vulgar 
prejudice,  and  to  flatter  themselves  that  they  can 
benefit  a  large  class  most  by  imparting  to  them  heat 
without  light.  "We  apprehend  that  such  heat  can  be 
but  a  momentary  glow  of  sympathetic  or  animal  ex 
citement,  as  flashy  as  its  cause.  The  rational  soul 
can  feel  only  in  view  of  what  it  first  perceives.  Emo 
tions  must  be  founded  on  and  determined  by  cogni 
tions.  Christianity  is  not  a  religion  of  blind  feeling 
or  capricious  impulse.  It  is  a  religion  of  truth.  It 
sanctifies  by  the  truth.  And  the  great  duty  of  the 
preacher  is,  "  by  manifestation  of  the  truth  to  com 
mend  himself  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight 
of  God."  Our  religion  is  not,  as  some  one  has  said, 
like  the  moon,  giving  light  without  heat,  nor  like  the 
stove,  giving  heat  without  light,  but  like  the  sun, 
giving  perennial  light,  and  warmth,  and  life. 

If  there  is  any  force  in  these  views,  they  lead  to 
the  conclusion,  that  the  true  interest,  life,  and  power 


THE  MATTER  OF  PEEACHING.  237 

of  preaching,  lie  in  the  exhibition  and  enforcement  of 
Christian  truth  and  duty  5  in  the  justness  and  force 
of  the  answers  it  gives,  to  the  great  questions,  What 
shall  I  believe,  what  shall  I  love,  what  shall  I  do,  in 
order  to  lead  a  righteous,  sober,  and  godly  life ;  and 
that  when  Christ  appears,  I  also  may  appear  with 
him  in  glory  ? — in  a  word,  in  the  Christian  light  it 
sheds  on  the  intellect  and  conscience,  to  the  end  that 
it  may  mould  the  heart.  The  feeling  awakened  by 
such  preaching  will  be  salutary,  Christian  feeling. 
The  greater  the  clearness,  fervour,  and  vividness  with 
which  such  truths  are  set  forth,  and  sent  home,  the 
better.  And  we  may  add,  that  all  other  sources  of 
interest  in  a  preacher  and  his  sermons,  are  aside  of, 
if  not  athwart,  the  true  aim  of  preaching.  That  the 
preacher  be  admired  ;  that  he  fascinate  by  poetry  or 
oratory,  by  philosophy,  or  any  excellency  of  speech 
or  wisdom,  may  answer  a  great  many  purposes.  But 
it  may  all  be,  without  preaching  the  gospel,  or  dis 
turbing  the  thoughtless,  or  guiding  the  anxious  soul, 
or  edifying  the  people  of  God.  We  by  no  means 
underrate  a  good  report  of  them  that  are  without. 
We  appreciate  the  importance  of  being  in  favour  with 
all  the  people,  and  giving  no  offence  in  any  thing,  that 
the  ministry  be  not  blamed.  But  we  know,  too,  that 
a  woe  is  upon  those  who  preach  not  the  gospel,  and 
of  whom  all  men  at  all  times  speak  well.  We  should 


238  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

esteem  the  solemn  awe,  the  deep  thoughtfulness  of 
the  worldling,  the  alarm  of  the  presumptuous,  the  ray 
of  spiritual  comfort  stealing  in  upon  the  contrite  soul, 
the  devout  feeling  and  holy  purpose  springing  up  in 
the  breast  of  one  and  another,  on  leaving  the  sanc 
tuary,  a  more  precious  testimony  to  the  power  and 
excellence  of  the  discourse,  than  all  the  plaudits  of 
graceless  worldlings,  and  genteel  professors,  who  are 
lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God.  The 
self-searching,  the  humility,  the  tears  of  penitence, 
the  sweet  and  confiding  faith,  the  comfort  of  hope,  the 
movement  of  the  soul  from  self  and  the  world,  toward 
God  in  Christ,  with  which  so  many  heard  the  preach 
ing  of  a  Nettleton  or  Alexander,  are  a  thousand-fold 
higher  attestations  of  pulpit  power,  than  all  the  en 
comiums  ever  lavished  upon  merely  magnificent  ora 
tory.  It  was  a  common  question  among  the  hearers 
of  the  famous  Shepard  of  Cambridge,  (who  was  wont 
to  say  that  all  his  sermons  cost  him  tears,)  as  they 
left  church  on  the  Sabbath,  "  Who  was  wrought  upon 
to-day  ?  "  These  are  the  best  seals  of  the  genuineness 
and  apostolicity  of  a  ministry  :  "  By  their  fruits  shall 
ye  know  them." 

In  the  foregoing  remarks,  we  have  necessarily 
anticipated  much  that  applies  equally  well  to  what 
follows.  The  effect  of  preaching  the  law  faithfully, 
will  not  be  to  encourage  men  to  attempt  to  gain  life 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.          239 

by  keeping  it,  but  to  show  them  their  utter  inability 
to  keep  it,  and  their  hopeless  condemnation  by  it. 
Convincing  them  of  their  ruin,  it  fills  them  with  a 
sense  of  their  need  of  a  Redeemer.  This  is  the  great 
central  truth  of  revelation,  and  the  foundation  of  true 
religion.  For  "  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay." 
Therefore,  while,  as  we  have  shown,  God  must  be  set 
forth,  first  of  all,  and  above  all,  in  preaching,  he 
must, 

3.  Be  pre-eminently  set  forth  as  "  God  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not  imputing  their 
trespasses."  It  were  a  poor  and  unworthy  work  to 
smite,  and  not  to  heal ;  to  tear,  and  not  bind  up  ;  to 
kill,  and  not  make  alive.  Hence,  since  He,  who  by 
death  overcame  him  that  hath  the  power  of  death, 
alone  can  deliver  us  from  sin,  our  paramount  office  is 
to  declare  Him,  who  is  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life. .  As  for  us,  our  mission  is  to  "  preach  Christ  and 
him  crucified  ;  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  to  the 
Greeks  foolishness,  but  to  them  who  are  called,  both 
Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the 
wisdom  of  God."  We  need  not  labour  to  prove  to 
the  Christian,  that 

"  Christ  and  his  cross  are  all  our  theme." 

All  else  converges  towards  him,  or  radiates  from  him. 
It  tends  to  lead  us  to  him,  or  flows  from  our  union  to 


240  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

him.  All  unfoldings  of  God  in  his  perfections  and 
glories ;  all  exhibitions  of  the  character,  condition, 
and  duties  of  man ;  all  inculcations  of  doctrine  and 
practice,  if  true  and  scriptural,  lead  the  soul  directly 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  wisdom,  righteousness, 
sanctification  and  redemption.  "  Ye  believe  in  God," 
says  Christ,  "  believe  also  in  me."  True  faith  in  God 
involves  faith  in  Christ,  as  soon  as  he  is  set  before  the 
soul ;  for  in  him  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelt 
bodily.  The  first  archangel  never  saw 

"  So  much  of  God  before." 

"We  behold  his  glory  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Faith  in  God  then  is  implicitly  faith  in  Christ ;  it  is 
a  germ  which  will  unfold  itself  as  such,  as  soon  as 
Christ  is  presented  to  it.  The  law  slays,  thus  show 
ing  us  that  Christ  is  our  only  life.  So  every  doctrine, 
every  duty,  all  legitimate  matter  of  preaching,  of 
whatever  sort,  culminates  in  Christ,  in  whom  all 
things  shall  be  gathered  into  one,  and  who  filleth  all 
in  all.  All  duty  leads  to  him,  to  discharge  the  debt 
incurred  by  its  non-performance,  to  obtain  strength 
for  its  future  fulfilment ;  while  the  wisdom,  power, 
and  love  displayed  in  Christ,  evoke  the  highest  love 
and  adoration,  and  incite,  while  they  enable  us  to 
render  grateful  and  devoted  obedience. 

But  upon  this  general  view  there  is  no  cause  to 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.          241 

dwell.  Few  Christians  will  deny  that  Christ  should 
be  the  centre  and  substance  of  all  preaching.  It  is 
only  upon  some  of  the  consequences  and  bearings  of 
this  truth,  that  there  is  occasion  for  remark. 

1.  "We  apprehend  that  preachers  are  in  little  dan 
ger  of  excess  in  setting  forth  Christ  objectively  to 
their  hearers.  He,  God  in  him,  is  the  great  object 
towards  which  their  faith,  love,  hope,  obedience,  and 
devotion,  are  to  be  directed.  They  are  Christians 
only  as  they  thus  bow  to  that  name  which  is  above 
every  name.  They  are  complete  in  Him  who  is  the 
Head  of  all  principality  and  power.  Without  him 
they  can  do  nothing.  Life,  faith,  love,  hope,  come 
of  looking  to  him,  not  to  themselves,  or  to  any  thing 
which  they  or  other  men  can  spin  out  of  themselves. 
It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  Christianity,  al 
though  working  an  inward  renovation  by  the  imme 
diate  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  developes  this 
change  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  our  rational 
and  moral  nature.  ~No  Christian  affections  can  arise 
except  in  view  of  their  proper  objects.  These  objects 
are  found  in  Christ,  the  God-man,  our  Saviour,  in  his 
person,  offices,  and  works.  Of  course,  we  do  not 
mean  to  advocate  any  monotonous  repetition  of  any 
single  or  isolated  truth  in  regard  to  him.  There  is 
no  need  of  this.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  trea 
tises  in  our  language,  is  that  .of  Bell,  showing  how 
11 


24:2  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

much  of  God  is  evinced  in  the  human  hand.  A 
friend  of  ours  has  in  contemplation  a  similar  treatise 
in  regard  to  the  honey-bee.  If  these  diminutive  ob 
jects  require  volumes  to  show  the  extent  of  divine 
imprint  upon  them,  can  there  be  any  lack  of  variety, 
any  need  of  monotony,  in  exploring  the  infinite  com 
pass  and  relations  of  the  Redeemer  and  his  work  ? 
All  life  contains  inexhaustible  variety  in  unity  which 
never  tires  by  monotony.  How  much  more  He  who 
is  the  Life,  and  combines  in  his  own  person  a  di 
vine  life,  a  human  life,  and  the  source  of  all  life, 
out  of  whose  rulness  we  all  receive,  and  grace  for 
grace  !  The  endless  sides  and  aspects  in  which  he 
stands  related  to  his  people,  enable  us  to  view  him  in 
relations  ever  fresh  and  diversified,  while  yet  he  re 
mains  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever. 

2.  It  hence  follows,  that  the  way  and  grounds  of 
vital  union  to  Christ  should  be  thoroughly  and  abun 
dantly  set  forth  and  cleared  up  in  preaching.  The 
nature  of  saving  faith,  as  distinguished  from  all  coun 
terfeits  of  it ;  its  simplicity,  as  distinguished  from  all 
the  entanglements  with  which,  unbelief  would  em 
barrass  it ;  its  naked  essence,  as  simple  trust  in 
Christ  and  his  righteousness,  should  be,  in  one  form 
and  another,  a  frequent  theme  of  preaching,  and  ha 
bitually  inwoven  with  the  whole  texture  of  our  dis 
courses.  This  must  be  done,  even  if  it  incur  the  dan- 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  243 

ger  of  seeming  repetitions.  It  is  the  grand  requisite 
to  the  birth  of  the  soul  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Simple  and  rudimentary  as  it  is  in  Christian  teaching, 
free  justification  is  an  article  in  which  men  born 
under  the  covenant  of  works  are  dull  learners.  There 
always  are  those  in  every  congregation  who  are  think 
ing  and  inquiring  on  the  subject  of  religion,  but  who 
have  never  known  what  it  is  to  believe  on  Christ  to 
the  saving  of  the  soul.  There  are  always  babes  in 
Christ,  and  weak  believers,  who  tremble  and  stumble 
in  their  Christian  walk,  because  they  have  no  ade 
quate  view  of  the  free,  gratuitous,  and  full  justifica 
tion  which  faith  embraces  and  insures  merely  for  the 
taking.  At  this  point,  too,  not  a  few  older  Chris 
tians,  "  when,  for  the  time,  they  ought  to  be  teachers, 
have  need  that  one  teach  them  which  be  the  first 
principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ."  Many  minis 
ters  have  been  surprised,  in  conversations  with  the 
sick  and  dying,  to  find  persons  who  have  been  their 
hearers  all  their  days,  in  a  mist  on  this  simple  and 
vital  question,  How  can  a  sinner  be  justified  before 
God  ?  They  know,  indeed,  in  general,  that  it  is  not 
by  their  own,  but  by  Christ's  righteousness ;  yet, 
until  the  Spirit  takes  the  scales  from  their  eyes,  they 
will  be  found,  in  some  form,  to  be  working  up  a 
righteousness  of  their  own.  They  will  think  they 
must  in  some  way  make  themselves  better,  before 


244  THOUGHTS    ON    PREA.CHING. 

they  can  be  fit  to  go  to  Christ,  or  he  can  receive 
them.  Many  believers  often  waver  at  this  point. 
They  doubt  whether  persons  so  unworthy  have  any 
warrant  to  appropriate  to  themselves  the  Saviour's 
righteousness.  It  is  of  great  importance,  that  all  in 
quiring,  doubting,  trembling  souls  be  brought  to  see 
clearly  the  true  nature  of  justification,  which,  inures 
to  those  who  believe  on  Him  that  justifieth  the  un 
godly,  that  so  they  may  stagger  not  at  the  promise, 
but  be  strong  in  the  faith,  giving  glory  to  God.  Nor 
can  the  preacher  well  expend  too  much  of  his  strength 
here.  All  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  maketh  free  ; 
all  filial  confidence,  love,  and  devotion ;  all  holy 
strength  and  courage  to  serve  God  without  fear,  in 
holiness  and  righteousness,  all  the  days  of  our  lives  ; 
all  that  is  sweet,  genial,  and  buoyant,  in  our  spiritual 
state,  depend  upon  it.  Thus  there  is  peace  and  joy 
in  believing.  Thus  we  obtain  righteousness,  peace, 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Thus  alone  can  we  be 
delivered  from  the  spirit  of  bondage  and  slavish  fear, 
or  feel  ourselves  in  such  a  relation  towards  God  as 
enables  us  to  serve  him  with  a  true  heart  and  right 
spirit.  To  the  carnal  eye,  it  indeed  seems  impossible 
that  free  justification  should  not  encourage  licentious 
ness.  To  the  spiritual  eye,  it  is  the  purifying  spring 
from  which  good  works  must  flow,  and  cannot  but 
flow.  We  are  not  to  get  life  in  order  to  come  to 


THE  MATTER  OF  PKEACHING.  245 

Christ,  "but  to  come  to   Christ  that  we   may  have 
life. 

There  is  a  class  of  theologians  and  preachers  who 
involve  this  whole  subject  in  perplexity,  by  the  theory 
that  love  precedes  and  is  the  spring  of  evangelical 
faith,  and  that  none  but  penitents  are  warranted  to 
trust  in  Christ.  The  effect  of  this  is  to  make  men 
feel  that  until  they  can  find  within  themselves  evi 
dences  of  penitence  and  love,  they  must  consider  the 
mercies  of  the  gospel,  as  Boston  says,  "  forbidden 
fruit,"  which  it  is  unlawful  for  them  to  touch.  On 
this  subject,  confusion  of  mind  is  the  easiest  of  all 
things,  and  the  clear  truth  among  the  most  impor 
tant.  It  is  true,  that  no  faith  is  genuine  without  re 
pentance  and  love.  So  faith  without  works  is  dead. 
It  is  also  true,  that  faith,  although  in  the  order  of 
time  simultaneous  with  commencing  love,  repentance, 
and  good  works,  is,  in  the  order  of  nature,  before, 
conditional  to,  and  causative  of  them.  Love  can  only 
arise  from  faith's  perception  and  belief  of  the  excel 
lence  and  glory  of  Christ  and  his  cross,  and  of  God 
as  shining  through  them.  It  arises,  as  they  see 

"What  wisdom,  power,  and  love, 
Shine  in  their  dying  Lord." 

But  we  must  discern  and  believe  in  this  loveliness 
before  it  can  excite  our  love.  And  when  we  believe 


246  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING- 

and  see  it,  it  cannot  but  draw  the  heart.  Another 
consideration  is,  that  until  we  are  in  that  friendly  re 
lation  to  God  in  which  justifying  faith  places  us,  we 
cannot  confide  ourselves  to  him.  We  feel  that  our 
sins  subject  us  to  his  righteous  displeasure,  and  that 
we  merit  and  must  receive  vengeance  at  his  hands. 
Now  love  is  impossible  towards  those  whom  we  dare 
not  trust  because  we  are  subjects  of  their  righteous 
wrath.  So  faith  is  indispensable  to  love.  And  since 
all  works  not  inspired  by  faith  and  love,  are  slavish, 
dead  works,  it  follows,  that  although  there  be  no  faith 
without  repentance,  love,  and  holiness,  yet  faith  is 
their  antecedent  and  cause,  as  truly  as  the  sun  of  its 
beams,  and  life  of  breath.  We  apprehend  that  a 
clear  view  of  this  point  is  of  great  moment  in  guiding 
inquiring  souls.  He  is  paralyzed  in  making  the 
gospel  offer,  who  cannot,  without  conditions,  bid 
every  thirsty  soul  come  and  welcome ;  who  is  con 
strained  to  tell  sinners  that  they  must  get  rid  of  their 
inward  distempers  and  maladies  before  coming  to 
Christ,  instead  of  going  to  him  at  once  for  the  re 
moval  of  sin  and  guilt.  This  is  preaching  a  fettered 
gospel,  and  it  produces  a  fettered  piety.  It  gender- 
eth  to  bondage.  It  is  alien  from  the  sweet  and  sim 
ple  faith,  the  filial  confidence  and  freedom,  the  buoy 
ant  yet  humble  hope,  the  cordial  love  and  genial  de 
votion  of  the  gospel ;  and  which  result  from  going  at 


THE   MATTEJi   OF    PREACHING.  247 

once  to  Christ  for  all,  receiving  all  as  a  free  gift  from 
him,  and  thence  giving  all,  in  love  and  gratitu'de,  to 
him.  We  think  this  view  is  sustained  by  the  whole 
drift  of  scriptural  representations.  According  to 
these,  faith  purifieth  the  heart :  it  works  (exerts  its 
energies)  by  love  ;  it  is  the  victory  that  overcometh 
the  world.  This  view  fully  accords  with  the  absolute 
necessity  of  love,  repentance,  humility,  and  good 
works,  to  salvation.  Faith,  which  does  not  exert  and 
evince  itself  in  these,  is  not  saving  faith.  Though  we 
have  all  faith  and  have  not  charity,  it  profiteth  noth 
ing.  Nor  do  the  calls  to  repent,  with  the  promise  of 
pardon  annexed,  conflict  with  ;  they  rather  corrobo 
rate  this  view.  On  what  is  this  pardon  based  ?  On 
Christ.  How  apprehended  and  applied  ?  By  faith. 
When  the  wicked  are  exhorted  to  forsake  their  way, 
and  the  unrighteous  their  thoughts,  and  turn  to  God, 
who  hath  mercy,  and  to  our  God  who  will  abun 
dantly  pardon,  it  is  only  a  form  of  teaching,  that  faith 
in  God's  pardoning  mercy  is  prerequisite  to  true  re 
pentance.  The  definition  of  the  Catechism  is  a  true 
summation  of  scriptural  teachings  on  this  subject. 
"  Repentance  unto  life  is  a  saving  grace,  whereby  a 
sinner,  out  of  a  true  sense  of  his  sin,  and  apprehension 
of  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  doth,  with  grief  and 
hatred  of  his  sin,  turn  from  it  unto  God,  with  full 
purpose  of,  and  endeavour  after  new  obedience." 


24:8  THOUGHTS    ON   PKEACHING. 

The  mistaken  theory  to  which  we  hare  adverted, 
of  deriving  faith  from  love,  and  not  love  from  faith, 
has,  we  are  persuaded,  a  strong  tendency  to  gener 
ate  error  on  the  subject  of  the  sinner's  inability.  The 
preacher  does  not  see  his  way  clear  to  direct  the  sin 
ner  immediately  to  Christ  for  deliverance  from  this 
and  all  other  evils  and  miseries  of  sin.  If  he  cannot 
bid  the  sinner  go  out  of  himself  at  once  to  a  strength 
which  is  made  perfect  in  his  weakness,  nor  till  he  has 
procured  penitence,  or  love,  or  some  other  robe  of 
clean  linen  with  which  to  go,  the  question  arises, 
How  shall  he  get  all  this  ?  How  can  he  be  incited  to 
work  and  strive  for  it  ?  The  answer  is,  the  preacher 
must  be  prepared  to  tell  him  he  is  able  to  accomplish 
it,  or  else  he  is  hopelessly  paralyzed,  and  can  do  noth 
ing,  but  leave  the  inquirer  passively  awaiting  the 
sovereign  afflatus  of  the  Spirit.  Hence  various  fic 
tions  of  natural,  and  we  know  not  what  other,  ability, 
have  been  devised  to  bridge  over  this  chasm.  But 
the  inability  of  the  sinner  though  moral,  is  real,  and 
inconsistent  with  any  thing  that  can  properly  or  safely 
be  called  ability.  All  modes  of  teaching  which  have 
any  other  effect  than  to  lead  men,  under  a  sense  of 
their  own  helplessness,  to  cast  themselves  on  Christ 
for  strength  to  lead  a  Christian  life,  arc  delusive  and 

O  7 

mischievous.     We  are  not  sufficient  for  any  thing,  as 
of  ourselves ;  our  sufficiency  is  of  God.     When  we 


THE    MATTER    OF    PKEACHING.  249 

arc  weak,  then  are  we  strong  in  the  Lord  and  the 
power  of  his  might.  This  is  the  whole  theory  of  the 
Christian  life.  The  just  shall  live  by  faith  ;  not  faith 
in  their  own  ability,  but  of  the  Son  of  God  who  loved 
us  and  gave  himself  for  us.  The  whole  may  be 
summed  up  by  adding  to  the  article  of  the  Catechism 
on  repentance,  those  on  faith  and  effectual  calling. 
"  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  a  saving  grace  whereby  we 
receive  and  rest  upon  him  alone  for  salvation,  as  he 
is  offered  to  us  in  the  gospel."  "  Effectual  calling 
is  the  work  of  God's  Spirit,  whereby  convincing  us  of 
our  sin  and  misery,  enlightening  our  minds  in  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  and  renewing  our  wills,  he  doth 
persuade  and  enable  us  to  embrace  Jesus  Christ, 
freely  offered  to  us  in  the  gospel." 

3.  A  few  words  will  suffice,  after  what  we  have 
already  advanced,  to  show  our  views  of  doctrinal 
preaching.  "We  can  hardly  conceive  of  a  Christian 
discourse  which  does  not  implicitly  contain,  and,  with 
greater  or  less  explicitness,  articulate  a  Christian 
truth  or  doctrine.  Christian  doctrines  are  but  the 
truths  of  Christianity.  The  only  real  question  then 
is,  what  Christian  truths  shall  be  preached,  and  in 
what  relative  proportions  ?  Here  the  word  of  God 
is  our  true  model  and  guide.  But  shall  not  certain 
doctrines  be  suppressed,  although  taught  in  the  sacred 
oracles  ?  Here  again  our  answer  is,  preach  the  word. 
11* 


250  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

"  All  scripture  is  profitable  for  doctrine,"  as  well  as 
other  tilings,  whoever  may  wish  the  ninth  chapter  of 
Romans,  or  any  other  part,  expunged  therefrom. 
Generally,  the  objection  to  preaching  doctrines  has 
reference  to  those  doctrines  wrhich  the  objector  dis 
likes.  If  he  can  prove  them  untrue  or  unscriptural, 
his  objection  is  valid,  not  otherwise.  All  Christian 
affections  and  purposes  are  inspired  by  a  view  of 
Christian  truth.  They  are  otherwise  impossible. 
And  there  is  no  Christian  truth,  which,  presented  in 
its  due  proportions  and  surroundings,  does  not  tend 
to  nourish  some  holy  affection.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  therefore,  that  it  is  a  fundamental  part  of  the 
preacher's  vocation,  to  make  these  truths  clearly  un 
derstood,  as  the  very  condition  of  true  faith,  holy 
living,  whatever  is  involved  in  right  practice.  The 
inculcation  of  doctrine  is  sometimes  stigmatized  as 
dull  and  unprofitable  ;  as  offering  the  mere  dry  bones 
to  souls  craving  the  nutritive  milk  and  meat  of  the 
word.  We  do  not  deny  that  there  may  be  doctrinal 
preaching  obnoxious  to  this  charge.  We  do  not 
think  sermons  should  be  theological  lectures,  didactic 
or  polemic.  We  think  doctrine  being  clearly  denned 
and  established,  should  always  be  developed  in  its 
practical  and  experimental  bearings.  So  all  Chris 
tian  practice  should  be  based  on  its  correlate  doc 
trines,  and  rooted  in  Christian  principle,  in  order  to 


THE  MATTER  OF  PKEACHING.          251 

be  of  that  kind  which  accompanies  salvation.  As  to 
fervid  discourses  which  would  stir  the  feelings  with 
out  illuminating  the  understanding,  we  have  already 
said  enough.  The  attempt  to  edify  the  Church  with 
out  doctrinal  instruction,  is  like  the  attempt  to  build 
a  house  without  foundation  or  frame-work.  Let  any 
in  derision  call  the  doctrines  "  bones,"  if  they  will. 
What  sort  of  a  body  would  that  be  which  was  flesh 
and  blood,  without  bones  ?  If  any  present  them  in 
skeleton  nakedness,  divested  of  their  vital  relations  to 
life  and  experience,  this  is  the  fault  of  those  who  do 
it,  not  of  true  and  proper  doctrinal  preaching,  which 
on  one  of  its  sides  is  practical  and  experimental.  In 
fact,  the  two  should  never  be  torn  asunder,  any  more 
than  the  flesh  and  bones.  They  should  ever  blend 
with  and  vitally  interpenetrate  each  other,  and  be 
pervaded  by  the  unction  of  the  Holy  One.  No  sane 
man  will  contend  for  mere  dogmatic  abstractions  in 
the  pulpit.  Much  less  should  it  be  a  theatre  for  phil 
osophic  or  metaphysical  disquisitions.  But  it  should 
be  a  theatre  for  unfolding,  illustrating,  enforcing 
divine  truth  proved  by  the  testimony  of  Him  for 
whom  it  is  impossible  to  lie,  to  be  apprehended  by 
the  intellect,  and  vouched  for  by  the  conscience  of 
man.  "VVe  do  not  believe  this  truth  so  devoid  of  in 
terest  as  seems  to  be  supposed  by  many,  who  on  this 
account  studiously  shun  it.  We  believe  it  to  be  the 


252  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

only  material  on  which  most  ministers,  who  have  no 
coruscations  of  genius,  especially  eccentric  genius, 
\vith  which  to  charm  their  hearers,  can  rely  for  awak 
ening  a  permanent  interest  in  their  ministrations. 
While  there  is  any  religion  in  the  world,  he'  will 
hardly  fail  to  interest  his  flock,  who  feeds  them  with 
knowledge  and  understanding.  Dr.  Emmons,  whose 
sermons  were  in  a  remarkably  degree  clear  and  icy 
metaphysical  reasonings,  far  less  attractive  than  the 
plain  truths  of  Scripture,  read  off  in  the  most  passion 
less  manner,  always  had  an  audience  of  eager  listen 
ers.  He  said  in  his  laconic  way,  "  I  have  generally 
found  that  people  will  attend,  if  you  give  them  any 
thing  to  attend  to." 

Polemical  and  controversial  preaching  is  doubt 
less  to  be  avoided,  except  so  far  as  the  preacher  is 
called  to  combat  the  lusts  and  errors  of  hearers.  In 
this  sense,  faithful  ministers  will  always  be  obliged, 
like  the  apostle,  to  u  teach  the  gospel  with  much  con 
tention."  All  preaching  is  immediately  or  remotely 
an  assault  upon  the  deceits  of  sin,  and  the  refuges  of 
lies  in  which  it  entrenches  itself.  And  it  may  happen, 
when  errorists  are  stealing  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
that,  with  heavenly  wisdom  and  prudence,  ministers 
must  dispute  daily,  as  did  Paul,  the  things  of  the 
kingdom.  This  is  one  thing.  To  bring  the  odium 
thcologicum  into  the  pulpit ;  to  be  fond  of  holding  up 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  253 

other  bodies  of  Christians  to  reproach  and  derision ; 
to  appear  more  anxious  to  gain  the  victory  over  our 
adversary,  who  has  no  chance  to  defend  himself,  than 
to  save  the  souls  of  them  that  hear  ;  to  display  wrath, 
and  bitterness,  and  clamour,  and  evil  speaking,  in  a 
place  that  should  be  radiant  with  Christian  benig 
nity  ;  or,  even  without  this,  to  be  always  thrusting 
out  the  horns  dissevered  from  the  body  of  Christian 
doctrine  and  practice,  may  accomplish  a  great  many 
tilings.  But  we  have  never  seen  it  productive  of  any 
signal  fruits  of  faith,  humility,  penitence,  love,  and 
devotion.  In  general,  it  will  be  found,  especially  so 
far  as  the  pulpit  is  concerned,  that  the  positive  and 
able  inculcation  of  the  truth  is  the  best  defence  against 
error  ;  and  that  the  more  completely  impersonal  and 
uncontroversial  it  is,  the  less  likely  is  it  to  arouse 
those  carnal  and  malevolent  feelings  which,  always 
grieve  the  Spirit  of  God.  This  is  the  general  princi 
ple.  Cases  may  arise  in  which  duty  requires  another 
course  ;  but  they  should  be  exceptional  and  emergent. 
4.  In  combatting  the  errors  and  lusts  of  men,  we 
do  not  believe  that  any  great  good  is  effected  by 
abstract  metaphysical  and  philosophical  arguments. 
They  are  usually  unintelligible  to  the  common  mind. 
They  are  the  "  wisdom  of  this  world,  which  is  foolish 
ness  with  God,"  and  which  no  preacher  is  commis 
sioned  to  employ ;  and  if  he  condescends  to  found 


254:  THOUGHTS    ON    PKE  ACHING. 

his  claims  on  his  philosophy,  one  man's  philosophy  is 
as  good  as  another's.  He  has  a  higher  sanction  for 
all  that  he  proclaims,  even  the  testimony  of  God, 
which  shines  in  its  own  self-evidencing  light  through 
out  the  Scriptures.  Besides  this,  he  has  the  witness 
of  the  consciousness  of  his  hearers  to  attest  what  he 
affirms  in  regard  to  their  moral  state,  their  ill-desert, 
their  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  their  chief  duties  as 
Christians.  Thus,  for  the  principal  parts  of  his  mes 
sage,  he  has  proofs  more  effective,  and  exercising  a 
far  higher  convictive  power,  than  any  ingenuity  of 
speculation.  And  here  he  has  an  advantage  which 
largely  compensates  for  the  natural  apathy  and  aver 
sion  of  men  to  the  gospel.  He  speaks  by  divine  au 
thority,  and  not  as  the  scribes,  if  he  is  true  to  his 
trust.  Their  consciences  meanwhile  bear  him  wit 
ness.  Any  other  basis  of  his  teachings  is  of  little 
efficacy  in  producing  scriptural  faith.  For  this  is 
faith,  not  in  any  philosopheme  or  hypothesis  of  man, 
but  in  God  and  his  word  ;  and  it  must  stand,  not  in 
the  wisdom  of  men,  but  the  power  of  God.  It  is  be 
yond  all  doubt,  then,  that  the  preacher's  discourse  will 
be  instinct  with  penetrating,  convictive,  spiritual,  puri 
fying  energy,  just  and  only  in  proportion  as  he  appeals 
to  the  authority  of  God  and  the  consciences  of  his 
hearers.  This  is  wielding  the  sword  of  the  Spirit ; 
and  when  we  use  his  sword,  in  devout  dependence  on 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  255 

him,  we  may  look  for  his  presence  to  give  it  an 
ethereal  temper  and  penetrant  edge.  Such  preaching, 
though  it  come  not  with  excellency  of  speech  or  of 
wisdom,  declaring  the  testimony  of  God,  will  doubt 
less  be  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power. 

As  the  Spirit  works  the  new  creation  not  by  any 
violation  of,  but  in  unison  with,  the  nature  and  laws 
of  the  rational  soul,  as  he  persuades  while  he  enables  us 
to  embrace  Christ,  and  does  this  by  giving  efficacy  to 
the  external  persuasions  of  the  word  read  and  preached, 
so  the  true  method  of  bringing  men  to  the  knowledge 
and  belief  of  the  truth,  is,  as  in  all  cases,  to  proceed 
from  the  known  to  the  unknown.  All  moral  and 
Christian  truths  are  concatenated  and  interdependent, 
like  the  members  of  a  living  organism.  Each  one 
either  supposes  or  is  confirmed  by  all  the  rest.  Had 
we  adequate  faculties,  we  should  doubtless  see,  in  re 
gard  to  all  these  truths,  what  we  now  see  of  some, 
that  they  involve  all  the  rest ;  just  as  the  zoologist 
will  tell  from  a  tooth  or  a  bone  all  the  other  parts  of 
the  animal  to  which  it  belonged.  To  a  very  great 
extent,  this  mutual  connection  of  the  various  por 
tions  of  moral  and  Christian  truth  is,  or  ought  to  be, 
known  to  the  preacher,  and  is  a  chief  element  in 
his  reasonings  and  pleas  with  all  classes  of  hearers. 
Few  are  so  totally  imbruted,  as  to  be  blind  to  the 
simplest  moral  truths.  In  the  light  of  these,  the  evi- 


256  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

dcnce  of  higher  truths  to  which  they  have  been  blind 
and  indisposed,  may  be  made  to  appear — as  surely  as 
from  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  we  may  syllable  out 
words,  sentences,  discourses,  all  literature.  The  rec 
ognition  of  the  distinction  between  moral  good  and 
evil,  cannot  be  developed  without  revealing  sin,  guilt, 
the  need  of  repentance  and  redemption,  and  from 
these  first  principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  we 
must  go  on  unto  perfection.  As  sin  is  deceitful  and 
blinding,  so  we  must  strive  to  dispel  its  bewilder 
ments.  As  it  is  madness,  we  must  use  the  fragments 
of  truth  and  sanity  still  left,  for  the  restoration  of  so 
much  of  reason  as  is  shattered  or  lost.  In  this  view, 
a  sound  and  prayerful  discretion  is  to  be  used,  as  to 
the  time  and  circumstances  for  declaring  the  various 
portions  of  the  counsel  of  God,  the  whole  of  which 
we  may  not  shun  to  declare  at  a  proper  time.  Other 
wise,  though  we  give  each  one  his  portion,  we  may  fail 
to  do  it  in  due  season,  and  may  oppress  with  meat, 
by  them  indigestible,  those  babes  in  Christ,  who  are 
not  as  yet  able  to  bear  it.  It  may  indeed  be  the 
preacher's  fault  that  they  are  such  as  have  not  their 
senses  exercised  to  discern  between  good  and  evil,  and 
are  still  such  as  have  need  of  milk  and  not  of  meat ; 
yet  in  forwarding  their  growth  in  knowledge,  he 
must,  like  all  other  skilful  teachers,  adapt  himself  to 
their  stage  of  spiritual  attainment. 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.          257 

5.  Here  arises  the  question,  as  to  the  extent  to 
which  prudential  considerations,  and  the  principle  of 
expediency  are  legitimate  in  determining  the  matter  of 
preaching.  ~YVe  are  met  by  two  classes  of  scriptural 
instructions,  which  in  sound  are  contradictory,  but 
in  sense  are  perfectly  coincident.  The  first  are  those 
which  demand  the  fullest  regard  to  the  dictates 
of  prudence  and  expediency.  They  teach  us  to  re 
frain  from  lawful  things  which  are  inexpedient,  to 
please  our  neighbour  in  order  to  his  edification,  to 
become  all  things  to  all  men,  if  by  any  means  we 
may  save  some.  Here  the  strongest  sanction  is  given 
to  the  principle  of  expediency.  "We  are  taught  with 
still  greater  emphasis,  "  though  we  or  an  angel  from 
heaven  preach  any  other  gospel,  let  him  be  accursed ; " 
that  we  may  not  shun  to  declare  the  whole  counsel 
of  God ;  that  we  may  not  do  evil  that  good  may 
come  ;  that  we  must  be  faithful  to  the  testimony  of 
Jesus,  and  the  truth  of  his  word  even  unto  death,  if 
wo  would  receive  the  crown  of  life.  There  is  no 
question  that  our  duty  is  to  preach  the  truth,  the 
whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  All  seeming 
discrepancy  here  disappears,  if  we  have  recourse  to 
the  familiar  ethical  classification  of  actions  as  good, 
bad,  and  indifferent.  In  regard  to  acts  in  themselves 
morally  right  or  wrong,  no  license  is  given  to  neglect 
the  one  or  do  the  other,  out  of  regard  to  any  consider- 


258  THOUGHTS   ON   PEEACIIING. 

ations  of  expediency.  We  are  not  to  lie  or  blaspheme, 
or  refuse  to  confess  Christ  and  his  gospel,  though  we 
might  thus  save  our  own  lives,  or  prevent  the  crush 
of  worlds.  No  instance  can  be  found  in  which  Paul 
did  or  sanctioned  such  things,  strenuous  as  he  was 
for  expediency.  On  the  other  hand,  in  regard  to 
things  indifferent,  i.  e.,  in  themselves  neither  morally 
good  nor  evil,  expediency  is  the  governing  principle. 
And,  by  expediency,  we  mean  tendency  to  promote 
what  is  morally  good,  or  prevent  what  is  morally  evil. 
To  give  a  familiar  example.  As  to  whether  we  shall 
worship  God  and  abjure  idols,  there  is  no  option. 
But  as  to  the  style  of  dress  and  equipage  I  shall 
adopt,  this  is  a  matter  to  be  determined  wholly  by  its 
relation  to  my  ability  to  discharge  my  just  obliga 
tions,  and  my  influence  for  good  or  evil  upon  my  fel 
low-men.  For  intrinsically,  linsey-woolsey  and  satin 
sparkling  with  diamonds  are  on  the  same  moral  foot 
ing.  ~VVe  think  that  the  application  of  these  prin 
ciples  to  preaching  is  not  difficult  or  obscure. 

1.  The  minister  has  no  discretion  as  to  setting  forth 
the  whole  body  of  divine  truth  in  the  course  of  his 
inculcations.     He  may  not  add  to,  or  take  from  the 
word  of  God. 

2.  He  may  not,  with  a  good  conscience,  when  in 
any  way  questioned  or  put  to  the  test,  disown,  or  give 
it  to  be  understood  that  he  does  not  believe,  what  he 


THE   MATTER    OF   PREACHING. 

does  believe  to  be  the  truth  in  Christ,  on  any  consid 
eration  or  pretext  whatsoever. 

3.  But  since  lie  cannot,  in  any  one  discourse,  or 
in  any  limited  period,  traverse  the  whole  circle  of  di 
vine  truth,  he  must  exercise  his  own  conscientious  dis 
cretion  as  to  the   times   and   occasions,  when   each 
respective  part  is  to  be  so  brought  forth  as  to  divide 
to  each  his  portion  in  due  season. 

4.  As  to  all  matters  indifferent,  whether  of  act  or 
word,  private  and  public,  they  are  to  be  regulated  by 
the  single  aim  of  giving  the  truth  more  facile  and 
effective  access  to  the  souls  of  men  ;  whether  wre  eat 
or  drink,  or  whatsover  w^e  do,  all  must  be  done  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  edification  of  souls. 

5.  "With  regard  to  rightly  dividing  the  word  of 
truth,  in  the  foregoing  cases,  as  well  as  all  others,  much 
must  doubtless  be  left  to  Christian  prudence  ;  a  want 
of  which,  more  frequently  than  any  other  fault,  im 
pairs  the  usefulness  of  clergymen,  and  ejects  them 
from  their  positions.     Dr.  Dwight  says,  that  by  far 
the  larger  part  of  the  forced  dismissions  of  pastors 
within  his  knowledge  were  attributable  to  this  cause. 
There  is,  however,  a  general  principle  in  regard  to  the 
distribution  of  the  different  portions  of  divine  truth, 
which  results  from  all   that   we  have  advanced,  is 
plainly  enunciated  in  the  Bible,  is  enforced  by  the 
example  of  prophets,  apostles,  and  Christ  himself,  and 


260  THOUGHTS   ON   PEE  ACHING. 

which  no  man  can  safely  disregard.  In  a  religion  in 
which  mercy  and  truth,  righteousness  and  peace,  are 
met  together,  men  must  be  made  to  behold  both  the 
goodness  and  severity  of  God.  Great  evil  results 
from  the  disproportionate  or  exclusive  exhibition  of 
either  the  stern  and  awful,  or  the  benignant  and  allur 
ing  aspects  of  the  divine  character.  One  class  should 
not  be  suffered  to  overshadow  the  other.  The  soul's 
welfare  requires  that  neither  should  be  forgotten  or 
ignored  :  "  For  the  better  understanding  of  this  mat 
ter,  we  may  observe,  that  God,  in  the  revelation  that 
he  has  made  of  himself  to  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ, 
has  taken  care  to  give  a  proportionable  manifestation 
of  two  kinds  of  excellencies  or  perfections  of  his  na 
ture,  viz.  those  which  specially  tend  to  possess  us  with 
awe  and  reverence,  and  to  search  and  humble  us  ;  and 
those  that  tend  to  win,  draw,  and  encourage  us.  By 
the  one,  he  appears  as  an  infinitely  great,  pure,  holy, 
and  heart-searching  judge  ;  by  the  other,  as  a  gentle 
and  gracious  father,  and  loving  friend.  By  the  one, 
he  is  a  pure,  searching,  and  burning  name ;  by  the 
other,  a  sweet,  refreshing  light.  These  two  kinds  of 
attributes  are,  as  it  were,  admirably  tempered  together 
in  the  revelation  of  the  gospel.  There  is  a  propor 
tionable  manifestation  of  justice  and  mercy,  holiness 
and  grace,  gentleness,  authority,  and  condescension. 
God  hath  thus  ordered  that  his  diverse  excellencies,  as 


TIIK    MATTER    OF    PEEACIIING.  .  261 

he  reveals  himself  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  should 
have  a  proportionable  manifestation,  herein  providing 
for  our  necessities.  He  knew  it  to  be  of  great  conse 
quence,  that  our  apprehensions  of  these  diverse  per 
fections  of  his  nature  should  be  duly  proportioned 
one  to  another.  A  defect  on  the  one  hand,  viz.  having 
a  discovery  of  his  love  and  grace,  without  a  propor 
tionable  discovery  of  his  awful  majesty,  his  holy  and 
searching  purity,  would  tend  to  spiritual  pride,  carnal 
confidence,  and  presumption  ;  and  a  defect  on  the 
other  hand,  viz.  having  a  discovery  of  his  holy  majesty, 
without  a  proportionable  discovery  of  his  grace,  tends 
to  unbelief,  a  sinful  fearfulness,  and  a  spirit  of  bond 
age."  * 

"We  shall  bring  these  observations  to  a  close,  by  a 
few  suggestions  relative  to  the  extent  of  the  preacher's 
obligations  to  give  instructions  to  men  in  respect  to 
worldly  relations  and  interests,  economic,  social,  and 
political. 

1.  "With  regard  to  all  that  is  commonly  understood 
by  the  moral  and  worldly  virtues  ;  i.  e.  virtues  which 
often  exist  without  piety,  and  are  commanded  by  the 
natural  conscience,  and  the  code  of  worldly  respecta 
bility,  as  well  as  by  the  gospel,  such  as  temperance, 
chastity,  honesty,  veracity,  fidelity,  kindness,  &c.,  it 
is  needless  to  say  that  they  are  of  self-evident  obliga- 

*  EdwardsV,  Works.     Xcw  York  edition,  vol.  iv.  pp.  224,  225. 


262  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

tion  ;  that  if  they  may  exist  without  piety,  piety  can 
not  exist  without  them  ;  and  that  they  should  be  en 
joined,  as  they  are  in  the  Bible.  They  should  be 
enforced,  not  merely  by  natural  and  worldly,  but  by 
spiritual  and  evangelical  motives.  Yet  they  ought 
not  to  fill  any  large  or  overshadowing  place  in  preach 
ing.  This  should  be  mainly  occupied  with  the  glorious 
gospel  of  the  blessed  God,  and  its  heavenly  truths  and 
requirements  ;  and  with  these  subordinately,  as  its 
subordinate,  though  indispensable  fruits.  Such  is  the 
uniform  course  of  the  New  Testament  preachers  ;  such 
is  the  most  effective  way  of  promoting  morality.  It 
makes  the  tree  good  ;  so  the  fruit  must  be  good.  Un 
less  it  be  a  very  distempered  and  unevangelical  type 
of  religion,  the  most  religious  men  are  the  most  moral 
individuals  and  communities,  in  all  countries  and  all 
ages.  Those  who  have  laid  out  their  chief  strength  in 
preaching  worldly  morality,  have  had  but  slender 
success.  Without  the  fascination  of  genius,  they  can 
seldom  keep  a  congregation  together.  The  mightiest 
preachers  of  the  everlasting  gospel,  who  have  done 
most  to  bring  men  to  the  obedience  of  faith,  have  pro 
duced  the  greatest  moral  reformations.  Dr.  Chalmers's 
experience  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  "  philosophy 
teaching  by  example."  He  relates,  that  in  his  earlier 
ministry,  he  plied  his  congregation  with  enthusiastic 
discourses  on  the  moral  virtues,  and  made  it  his  chief 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  263 

labour  thus  to  effect  a  reformation  of  their  morals. 
They  loved  the  preacher,  and  were  charmed  with  the 
magic  of  his  eloquence.  But  they  did  not  reform  their 
morals.  He  at  length  felt  the  hollowness  of  mere 
morality,  and  was  brought  to  the  cross  for  pardon  and 
peace.  He  at  once  altered  the  whole  matter  of  his 
preaching.  In  place  of  splendid  moral  essays,  he 
gave  them  clear  and  fervid  discourses  on  sin,  guilt,  and 
retribution ;  on  salvation  by  the  Redeemer's  blood, 
and  righteousness  ;  on  spiritual  regeneration,  faith,  re 
pentance,  holy  living,  heaven,  and  hell.  Multitudes 
were  awakened,  and  converted  to  the  Lord.  And  not 
only  so,  but  there  was  a  thorough,  wide-spread,  and 
permanent  reformation  of  morals.  Ex  uno  disce 
omnes.  The  pools  of  worldly  morality  will  stag 
nate,  unless  vitalized  by  streams  from  the  fountain 
of  life. 

As  we  have  said  that  morality  should  be  taught 
not  so  as  to  crowd  out  the  supremacy  of  the  gospel, 
but  as  its  necessary  subordinate  fruit,  so,  the  less  im 
mediate  and  direct,  the  more  distant  and  inferential 
the  duty,  the  more  distant  and  chary  should  the  pulpit 
be  in  treating  it.  "  At  the  last  extremity  of  a  branch, 
it  is  difficult  to  retain  a  view  of  the  stem.  Represent 
to  yourself,  for  example,  sermons  on  neatness,  po 
liteness,  &c.  Some  topics  of  this  sort,  doubtless, 
may  be  approached,  but  it  must  be  done  inciden- 


26J:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

tally ;  they  should  never  furnisli  the  subject  for  a 
sermon."  * 

2.  With  respect  to  the  social  and  civil  relations, 
and  all  interests  merely  worldly,  Christianity  insists  on 
the  exercise  of  religious  principles,  and  all  the  virtues 
of  our  holy  religion  in  every  sphere  of  life  and  action. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  God  will  honour  those 
that  honour  him  in  all  the  spheres  and  offices  of  life. 
They  will  be  blessed  in  their  basket  and  store,  their 
going  out  and  coming  in.  Society  is  elevated  and 
purified,  individuals  and  families  are  prospered,  every 
worldly  interest  of  man  thrives  in  proportion  as  reli 
gion,  pure  and  undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father, 
prevails.  This  is  its  inherent  tendency,  as  it  exalts  the 
whole  man,  and  restrains  those  corrupt  passions  that 
blight  the  body  as  well  as  the  soul,  and  destroy  both 
in  hell.  It  is  a  blessing,  also,  often  conveyed  in  honour 
of  his  religion  by  the  undercurrents,  and  secret  pros 
pering  gales  of  his  gracious  providence.  But  it  is 
often  withheld  in  his  wisdom,  or  prevented  by  coun 
teracting  causes.  How  often  has  persecution  hunted 
the  people  of  God  to  the  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth, 
while  faith  has  enabled  them  to  take  joyfully  the 
spoiling  of  their  goods,  and  to  count  not  even  their 
own  lives  dear,  knowing  that  in  heaven  they  have  a 
better  and  more  enduring  substance  ?  In  all  cases, 

*  Yinet's  Homiletics,  translated  by  Dr.  Skinner,  pp.  82,  83. 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  265 

they  that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  must  suffer 
persecution,  and  endure  chastening.  The  promise  will 
be  fulfilled,  that  through  much  tribulation  they  shall 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God.  Their  worldly  prosperity, 
so  far  as  it  is  vouchsafed,  follows  their  religion  as  the 
shadow  follows  the  substance.  But  it  is  not  the  sub 
stance — it  is  not  that  with  which  religion  concerns  it 
self,  otherwise  than  in  ways  incidental  and  subordinate. 
On  the  contrary,  its  effort  is  to  raise  the  soul  to  a 
sublime  superiority  above  the  transient  and  worldly. 
It  puts  no  value  upon  these  further  than  as  they  may 
be  linked  with  and  subserve  our  eternal  welfare — than 
as  the  scaffolding  to  the  edifice.  We  are  surely  not 
mistaken  here.  We  are  charged  to  take  no  thought 
what  we  shall  eat,  what  we  shall  drink,  or  wherewithal 
we  shall  be  clothed ;  to  look  not  at  things  seen  and 
temporal,  but  at  things  not  seen  and  eternal ;  if  we 
are  called,  being  servants,  to  care  not  for  it ;  but,  if  we 
may  be  free,  to  choose  it  rather ;  but  always  to  seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  with 
the  promise  that  all  other  things  shall  be  added  unto 
us,  which  our  true  well-being  demands.  Of  the  whole 
doctrine  of  Scripture  on  this  subject  the  Apostle  gives 
the  following  beautiful  summation.  "  But  this  I  say, 
brethren,  that  the  time  is  short.  It  remaineth,  that 
both  they  that  have  wives  be  as  though  they  had 
none  ;  and  they  that  weep,  as  though  they  wept  not : 
12 


266  THOUGHTS    ON    PEE  ACHING. 

and  they  that  rejoice,  as  though  they  rejoiced  not ; 
and  they  that  buy,  as  though  they  possessed  not ;  and 
they  that  use  this  world,  as  not  abusing  it ;  for  the 
fashion  of  this  world  passth  away." 

In  correspondence  with  all  this,  it  is  evidently  no 
part  of  the  preacher's  commission  to  make  the  promo 
tion  of  men's  worldly  interests  any  prominent  object 
of  his  inculcations.  On  the  contrary,  such  a  course  is 
clearly  discountenanced  in  the  Bible  as  not  only  re 
pugnant  to  religion,  but  suicidal ;  for,  by  displacing 
the  divine  and  eternal  element,  it  fails  of  its  benignant 
fruits  for  this  world.  For  these  bear  not  the  root,  but 
the  root  beareth  them.  So  far  as  we  have  observed, 
those  who  most  signalize  worldly  interests  in  preach 
ing,  so  far  from  eternizing  the  temporal,  merely  secu 
larize  the  spiritual.  "  ~No  man  that  warreth  entan- 
gleth  himself  with  the  affairs  of  this  world."  With 
respect  to  those  who  wrould  encourage,  servants  to  be 
restive  under  the  yoke,  or  contemptuous  of  their  mas 
ters,  Paul  denounces  them  as  "  men  of  corrupt  minds, 
supposing  that  gain  is  godliness  ;  from  such  withdraw 
thyself.  But  godliness  with  contentment  is  great  gain. 
For  we  brought  nothing  into  the  world,  and  it  is  cer 
tain  we  can  carry  nothing  out."  We  think  that  the 
same  principle  holds  in  this  matter,  which  Christ  pro 
pounds  in  regard  to  individuals.  "  He  that  iindeth. 
his  life  shall  lose  it  and  he  that  loseth  his  life  for  my 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  267 

sake,  shall  find  it."  Preachers  who  spend  their 
strength  in  efforts  at  worldly  amelioration,  usually 
spend  their  strength  for  nought.  Those  who  spend  it 
in  promoting  godliness,  usually  build  up  every  in 
terest  of  man,  temporal,  spiritual,  eternal,  individual, 
and  social.  "  Godliness  is  profitable  unto  all  things, 
having  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and  that  which 
is  to  come."  All  forms  of  mistaking  gain  for  godli 
ness,  betray  a  radical  misconception  of  the  whole 
nature  and  scope  of  the  gospel.  Says  John,  "  they 
are  of  the  world,  therefore  speak  they  of  the  world, 
and  the  world  heareth  them.  We  are  of  God.  He 
that  heareth  God,  heareth  us  ;  he  that  is  not  of  God, 
heareth  not  us.  Hereby  know  we  the  spirit  of  truth, 
and  the  spirit  of  error." 

It  being  thus  clear  that  worldly  amelioration,  how 
ever  it  may  be  a  consequence,  is  not  the  direct  object 
of  the  preacher's  inculcations,  it  follows,  that  the  pul 
pit,  in  proportion  as  it  is  engrossed  with  interests  less 
than  those  of  the  soul,  God,  and  eternity,  usually 
suffers  loss  itself,  and  thus  indirectly  damages  what  it 
undertakes  to  promote.  Let  a  preacher  devote  his 
pulpit  to  any  questions  social  or  civil,  which  respect 
simply  their  better  or  worse  condition  in  regard  to  the 
good  things  of  this  life,  and  he  will  generally  accom 
plish  less  for  their  temporal,  to  say  nothing  of  their 
eternal  welfare,  than  if  he  had  devoted  himself  to  the 


268  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

promotion  of  that  godliness  which,  with  contentment, 
is  great  gain. 

As,  however,  religion  has  its  development  and 
sphere  of  action  in  the  world,  and  includes  all  social 
and  relative  duties,  simply  because  it  includes  all 
duty,  and  requires  us  to  do  all  things  to  the  glory  of 
God ;  it,  of  course,  requires  us  to  act  in  all  good  con 
science  in  reference  to  our  country  and  government ; 
to  do  what  we  may  consistently  with  paramount  obli 
gations,  to  make  our  officers  peace,  and  our  exactors 
righteousness  ;  to  procure  just  and  salutary  laws  ;  to 
sustain  their  authority  and  execution ;  so  there  can  be 
no  question  as  to  the  propriety  of  inculcating  these 
great,  and  (among  Christians)  undisputed  principles, 
from  the  pulpit.  Indeed,  as  Christ  taught  us  to  render 
unto  Csesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God 
the  things  that  are  God's  ;  as  Paul  enjoined  obedience 
to  the  powers  that  be,  not  only  for  wrath,  but  for  con 
science'  sake,  so  he  expressly  charges  ministers  to 
"  put  them  in  mind  to  be  subject  to  principalities  and 
powers,  to  obey  magistrates,  to  be  ready  to  every  good 
work."  Of  course  this  means  a  real,  an  authorized 
magistrate,  not  a  pretender  or  usurper  ;  and  demands 
obedience  to  laws  enacted  by  a  competent  authority, 
not  by  a  mob,  or  any  unauthorized  assemblage.  And 
it  further  means  obedience  to  real  rulers,  as  to  all  other 
superiors,  so  far,  and  so  far  only,  as  they  do  not  require 


THE   MATTER    OF   PEE  ACHING.  269 

us  to  disobey  God.  In  this  case,  we  are  clearly  taught 
we  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  man.  To  obey  a 
magistrate  who  requires  us  to  blaspheme,  is  simply  to 
abet  him  in  his  rebellion  against  God.  In  such  a  case, 
our  only  course  is  to  sustain  the  law,  not  by  obeying 
its  precept,  but,  if  need  be,  by  enduring  the  penalty. 
It  is  no  strange  thing,  to  be  required  to  witness  a  good 
confession  at  the  cost  of  martyrdom. 

"We  have  no  reference  here  to  those  great  and  ab 
normal  emergencies  which  speak  for  themselves,  when 
the  people,  in  the  exercise  of  their  own  vis  medicatrix 
naturae,  by  the  sudden  violent  throes  of  revolution, 
cast  oif  a  government  intolerable  or  outgrown,  for  one 
suited  to  their  wants.  "We  only  mean  to  say  that  the 
foregoing  principles  are  proper,  and  at  times  necessary 
to  be  inculcated  in  the  pulpit.  But  when  we  pass 
from  these  principles,  which  must  commend  them 
selves  to  every  enlightened  conscience,  to  the  details  of 
their  concrete  application,  in  actual  politics,  other 
considerations  have  place.  There  is  no  question  that 
men  ought  to  regard  it,  and  to  be  taught  to  regard  it, 
as  a  duty  to  promote  the  elevation  to  office  of  the 
most  faithful  and  competent  men,  as  well  as  the  enact 
ment  of  just  and  equal  laws.  But  few  sane  men 
would  deem  it  safe  or  edifying  for  the  pulpit  to  dis 
cuss  the  respective  merits  of  different  candidates  ;  or 
whether  the  tariff,  or  sub-treasury,  or  statutes  enfran- 


270  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

cliising  and  making  voters  of  foreigners  were  just  and 
salutary.    Similar  embarrassments  may  exist,  however 
firm  the  preacher's  personal  convictions,  as  to  whether 
a  given  man,  or  set  of  men  are  the  legal  officers  they 
claim  to  be.     It  is  not  so  much  on  first  principles, 
which  few  men  possessing  a  moral  sense  will  dispute, 
as  the  application  of  these  principles  to  the  vast  and 
complex  affairs  of  nations  and  communities,  that  the 
angry  questions  of  party  politics  arise.     And  here, 
imperfect  knowledge,  interest,  prejudice,  party  predi 
lections  so  distort  and  bewilder,  that  however  strong 
our  own  personal  convictions,  we  see  vast  numbers  ear 
nestly  enlisted  on  opposite  sides,  whose  piety  cannot 
be  questioned.    We  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  these 
questions  may  not  sometimes  have  an  ethical  or  reli 
gious  side  too  obvious  and  urgent  for  the  pulpit  to 
neglect.     But  we  do  say,  as  the  result  of  considerable 
observation,  that  we  never  knew  the  pulpit  throw  it 
self  into  the  issues  that  divide  political  parties,  with 
out  contracting  a  stain  and  a  wound  upon  its  sanctity 
and  spiritual  power.     It  inevitably  soils  itself  by  such 
association  with  the  unworthy  passions  which  embitter 
and  disgrace  political  conflicts.     We  have  not  known 
any  instance  in  which  political  harangues  from  the 
pulpit  aided  the  party  espoused,  or  gained  a  voter,  or 
did  any  thing  more  than  give  intolerable  offence  to 
partisans  of  the  opposite  side.     Others  may  have  wit- 


THE  MATTER  OF  PREACHING.  271 

nessed  better  results.  "  As  to  patriotic  and  political 
sermons,  they  are  rather  to  be  avoided,  and  yet  in 
certain  grave  circumstances,  we  may  be  obliged  to 
touch  upon  such  subjects  in  the  pulpit.  .  .  .  "We  must 
beware,  lest  we  inflame  on  this  hearth,  the  passions 
of  the  natural  man.  How  shall  we  now  speak  of 
politics  without  taking  a  side?  "We  must  remark, 
also,  the  utilitarianism  which  for  the  most  part  is  con 
cealed  in  these  subjects.  It  is  better  for  the  preacher, 
as  it  is  for  the  navigator,  to  keep  himself  in  the  high 
sea ;  it  is  in  the  neighbourhood  of  coasts  that  ship 
wrecks  are  most  frequent." —  Vinetfs  Homiletics,  pp. 
86-7.  And  it  may  be  added,  that  with  the  ample 
sources  of  political  information  afforded  by  a  free 
press,  exigencies  can  rarely  occur  which  call  for  its 
dissemination  from  the  pulpit.  Its  office  should  rather 
be  to  moderate  the  fierceness  of  these  violent  conflicts, 
by  holding  up  the  contrasted  greatness  of  the  Infinite 
and  Eternal. 


EXPOSITORY  PREACHING. 

THE  pulpit  discourses  of  Roman  Catholics  as  well 
as  Protestants,  during  several  centuries,  have  been, 
for  the  most  part,  founded  on  short  passages  of  Scrip 
ture  ;  commonly  single  verses,  and  often er  less  than 
more.  This  has  become  so  prevalent,  that,  in  most 
treatises  upon  the  composition  of  sermons,  all  the 
canons  of  homiletics  presuppose  the  treatment  of  an 
isolated  text.  "We  are  not  prepared  to  denounce  this 
practice,  especially  when  we  consider  the  treasury  of 
sound  doctrine,  cogent  reasoning,  and  mighty  elo 
quence,  which  is  embodied  in  productions  formed  on 
this  model,  and  call  to  mind  the  instances  in  which 
such  discourses  have  been  signally  owned  of  God  in 
the  edification  of  his  church.  But  there  is  still  an 
other  method,  which,  though  less  familiar  to  our 
selves,  was  once  widely  prevalent,  and  is  recognized 
and  approved  in  our  Directory  for  Worship,  in  the 
following  words  :  "  It  is  proper  also  that  large  por 
tions  of  Scripture  be  sometimes  expounded,  and  par- 


EXPOSITORY   PEE  ACHING.  273 

ticularly  improved  for  the  instruction  of  the  people  in 
the  meaning  and  use  of  the  sacred  oracles."  *  And 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  mention  here,  that  in 
the  debates  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  there 
were  more  than  a  few  members,  and  among  these  the 
celebrated  Calamy,  who  maintained  with  earnestness, 
that  it  was  no  part  of  the  minister's  duty  to  read  the 
Scriptures  in  public  without  exposition.^ 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  that  in  an  age  in 
which  so  much  is  heard  against  creeds  and  systems 
as  contradistinguished  from  the  pure  text  of  Scrip 
ture,  and  in  which  sacred  hermeneutics  hold  so  high  a 
place  in  Theological  education,  we  should  have  al 
lowed  the  methodical  and  continued  exposition  of  the 
Bible  to  go  almost  into  disuse.^  What  our  predeces 
sors  practised  under  the  name  of  lectures  is  almost 
banished  from  the  pulpit.  It  is  against  this  exclu 
sion  that  we  now  propose  to  direct  our  argument. 
And  in  what  may  be  offered  in  the  sequel,  we  ask 
attention  to  this  statement  of  the  question  as  limiting 
our  purpose.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  decry  the  mode  of 


*  Directory  for  Worship,  chap.  vi.  §  2. 

f  Lightfoot's  Works,  vol.  xiii.  p.  36. 

J  Although  the  subject  of  this  essay  may,  in  certain  particulars, 
run  very  naturally  into  that  of  critical  interpretation,  the  writer  begs 
leave  to  disclaim  any  special  right  to  dwell  upon  this  topic,  as  his  pur 
suits  have  not  led  him  into  the  field  of  hermeneutics,  any  further  than 
the  performance  of  ordinary  ministerial  duty  required. 


274:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

discoursing  which  prevails  in  our  churches.  "We 
freely  acknowledge  its  many  excellencies,  and  rejoice 
in  its  gracious  fruits  ;  but  we  plead  in  behalf  of  an 
other  and  an  older  method,  which  we  lament  to  see 
neglected  and  forsaken.  "With  this  preface,  we  shall 
proceed  to  give  some  reasons  why  a  judicious  return 
to  the  expository  method  of  preaching  seems  to  us  to 
be  desirable. 

1.  The  expository  method  of  preaching  is  the  most 
obvious  and  natural  way  of  conveying  to  the  hearers 
the  import  of  the  sacred  volume.  It  is  the  very  work 
for  which  a  ministry  was  instituted,  to  interpret  the 
Scriptures.  In  the  case  of  any  other  book,  we  should 
be  at  no  loss  in  what  manner  to  proceed.  Suppose  a 
volume  of  human  science  to  be  placed  in  our  hands 
as  the  sole  manual,  text-book,  and  standard,  which 
we  were  expected  to  elucidate  to  a  public  assembly  : 
in  what  way  would  it  be  most  natural  to  go  to  work  ? 
Certainly  not,  we  think,  to  take  a  sentence  here,  and 
a  sentence  there,  and  upon  these  separate  portions  to 
frame  one  or  two  discourses  every  wreek.  2so  inter 
preter  of  Aristotle,  of  Littleton,  of  Puffendorf,  or  of 
Paley,  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  method.  Nor  was  it 
adopted  in  the  Christian  church,  until  the  sermon 
ceased  to  be  regarded  in  its  true  notion,  as  an  expla 
nation  of  the  Scripture,  and  began  to  be  viewed  as 
a  rhetorical  entertainment,  which  might  afford  occa- 


EXPOSITORY   PREACHING.  275 

sion  for  the  display  of  subtilty,  research  and  elo 
quence. 

2.  The  expository  method  has  the  sanction  of 
primitive  and  ancient  usage.  In  the  Israelitish,  as 
well  as  the  Christian  church,  preaching  was  an  ordi 
nary  mode  of  religious  instruction.  In  both  it  was 
justly  regarded  as  a  means  of  conducting  the  hearers 
to  the  knowledge  of  revealed  truth.  As  early  as  the 
time  of  Ezra,  we  find  that  the  reading  of  the  law  was 
accompanied  with  some  kind  of  interpretation.  In 
the  synagogues,  after  the  reading  of  the  law  and  the 
prophets,  it  was  usual  for  the  presiding  officer  to  in 
vite  such  as  were  learned  to  address  the  people.  Our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  availed  himself  of  this  opportunity 
to  deliver  one  of  his  most  remarkable  discourses ; 
and  this  was  an  exposition  of  a  prophetic  passage. 
The  apostle  Paul  seems  also  to  have  made  portions  of 
Scripture  the  basis  of  his  addresses  in  the  synagogues. 
But  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  preaching  of  the 
apostolic  age,  when  the  speakers  were  divinely  in 
spired,  should  be  in  all  respects  a  model  for  our  own 
times.  It  was  their  province  to  communicate  truth 
under  inspiration ;  it  is  ours  to  interpret  what  has 
thus  been  communicated.  The  early  Christian  as 
semblies  naturally  adopted  the  simple  and  rational 
methods  of  the  Jewish  synagogues ;  in  conformity 
with  which  it  was  an  essential  part  of  the  service  to 


276  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

read  the  Scriptures.  Manuscripts  were  rare,  and  the 
majority  of  believers  were  poor  ;  and  hence  the 
church  assemblies  must  have  long  continued  to  be 
the  chief,  if  not  the  only,  sources  of  biblical  knowl 
edge.  Justin  Martyr,  who  is  one  of  the  earliest  au 
thorities  on  this  subject,  informs  us  that  the  public 
reading  of  the  text  was  followed  by  addresses  adapted 
to  impress  the  subject  on  the  minds  of  the  hearers.* 
According  to  Neander,  who  may  be  considered  as  an 
impartial  judge  on  this  topic,  it  was  at  first  left  to 
the  option  of  the  bishop  what  portions  of  Scripture 
should  be  read ;  though  it  was  subsequently  made 
necessary  to  adhere  to  certain  lessons,  which  were 
judged  appropriate  to  times  and  seasons.  Bingham 
also  concedes  that  the  lessons  were  sometimes  arbi 
trarily  appointed  by  the  bishops  at  discretion.  Au 
gustine  declares  that  he  sometimes  ordered  a  lesson 
to  be  read  which  harmonized  with  the  psalm  which 
he  had  been  expounding,  f 

As  this  is  a  point  of  history  concerning  which 
there  is  little  room  for  question,  we  shall  content  our 
selves  with  the  diligent,  and,  as  we  believe,  impar 
tial  deductions  of  Bingham  and  Neander.  It  is  not 
to  be  denied,  that  there  were,  even  in  the  early  ages, 
several  different  modes  of  preaching,  and  that  some 

*  Apolog.  2. 

f  Aug.  in  Psalm  xc.  Serm.  ii. — Bingham,  Antiq.  B.  xiv.  c.  iii.  §  3. 


EXPOSITORY  PREACHING.  277 

of  these  approached  very  nearly  to  that  which  now 
prevails ;  yet  there  was  no  period  during  which  the 
expository  method  was  not  highly  prized  and  exten 
sively  practised.     These    discourses   were  very  fre 
quent,  and  often  flowed  from  the  intense  feeling  of 
the  moment.     Pamphilus,  in  his  Apology  for  Origen, 
represents  this  great  teacher  as  discoursing  extempore 
almost   every  day.     The  same   frequency  of  public 
address  is  recorded  of  Chrysostom,  Augustine,  and 
other  fathers.     Their  sei'mons  were  taken  down  by 
stenographers,  and  in  such  of  them  as  are  extant  we 
have  repeated  evidences  of  their  familiar  and  unpre 
meditated  character.     Chrysostom,  for  instance,  thus 
breaks  forth,  in  one  of  his  homilies  on  Genesis  :  "  I 
am  expounding  the  Scriptures  ;  yet  you  are  all  turn 
ing  your  eyes  from  me  to  the  person  who  is  lighting 
the  lamps.     What  negligence  !  to  forsake  me,  and  fix 
your  minds  on  him  !     For  I  am  lighting  a  fire  from 
the  holy  Scriptures,  and  in  my  tongue  is  a  burning 
lamp  for  instruction."     Augustine  also  tells  us,  in 
one  of  his  homilies,  that  he  had  not  thought  of  the 
subject   on  which  he   actually  preached,   until   the 
reader  chanced  to  read  it  of  his  own  accord  in  the 
church.*  «. 

The  two   greatest  preachers   of  the   Greek   and 
Latin  churches,  respectively,  afford  striking  examples 

*  Bingham,  Book  xiv.  chap.  iv.  §  4. 


278  THOUGHTS  ON  PEEACHING. 

of  the  value  set  upon  exposition.  Augustine  has  left 
homilies  upon  the  Psalms,  the  Gospel  of  John,  and 
other  whole  books  of  Scripture.  Chrysostom,  in  like 
manner,  expounded  at  length  the  book  of  Genesis,  the 
Psalms,  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  John,  and  all 
the  Epistles  of  Paul.  His  homilies  consist  usually  of  a 
close  interpretation,  or  running  commentary,  followed 
by  an  Ethicon,  or  practical  application.  That  bibli 
cal  exposition  was  recognized  as  the  end  of  preaching- 
seems  clear  from  some  declarations,  as  the  follow 
ing  :  "  If  any  one  assiduously  attend  public  worship, 
even  without  reading  the  Bible  at  home,  but  care 
fully  hearkening  here,  he  will  find  a  single  year  suffi 
cient  to  give  him  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
Scriptures."  *  And  indeed  this  is  so  natural  a  result 
of  the  catholic  belief  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  great 
storehouse  of  saving  truth,  as  to  leave  us  in  some  sur 
prise  at  the  neglect  into  which  this  direct  exposition 
of  the  authentic  records  has  fallen. 

When  we  look  into  the  history  of  England  during 
the  thirteenth  century,  we  find  that  two  modes  of 
preaching  were  in  use,  neither  of  these  being  that 
which  we  now  employ.  In  the  first  place,  that  of 
Postulating,  which  was  identical  with  the  expository 
method ;  secondly,  that  of  Declaring,  in  which  the 

*  Horn.  28,  in  Job. — Neander,  Der  heilige  Chrysostomus. 


EXPOSITORY    PBEACHING.  279 

discourse  was  preceded  by  a  declaration  of  the  sub 
ject,  without  the  citation  of  any  passage  of  Scripture. 
When  about  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  method  of  preaching  from  insulated  texts,  with 
subtile  divisions  of  the  sermons,  was  introduced,  it 
was  zealously  adopted  by  the  younger  clergy,  and 
became  extensively  popular  ;  while  it  was  as  warmly 
opposed  by  some  of  the  best  theologians  of  the  age, 
as  "  a  childish  playing  upon  words — destructive  of 
true  eloquence — tedious  and  unaffecting  to  the  hear 
ers — and  cramping  the  imagination  of  the  preacher." 
Among  others,  it  found  an  able  opponent  in  the  great 
Roger  Bacon ;  a  man  whom  we  can  never  mention 
without  amazement  at  his  philosophical  attainments, 
and  veneration  for  his  character.  "  The  greatest  part 
of  our  prelates,"  says  he,  "  having  but  little  knowl 
edge  in  divinity,  and  having  been  little  used  to 
preaching  in  their  youth,  when  they  become  bishops, 
and  are  sometimes  obliged  to  preach,  are  under  the 
necessity  of  begging  and  borrowing  the  sermons  of 
certain  novices,  who  have  invented  a  new  way  of 
preaching,  by  endless  divisions  and  quibblings,  in 
which  there  is  neither  sublimity  of  style  nor  depth  of 
wisdom,  but  much  childish  trifling  and  folly,  unsuit 
able  to  the  dignity  of  the  pulpit.  May  God  banish 
this  conceited  and  artificial  way  of  preaching  out  of 
his  church ;  for  it  will  never  do  any  good,  nor  elevate 


280  THOUGHTS   ON   PKEACHING. 

the  hearts  of  his  hearers  to  anything  that  is  great  or 
excellent."  * 

"  The  opposition  to  this  new  method  of  preaching," 
says  Dr.  Henry  in  his  History  of  England,  "  con 
tinued  through  the  whole  of  the  fourteenth,  and  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  Dr.  Thomas  Gascoigne, 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  tells  us  that 
he  preached  a  sermon  in  St.  Martin's  Church,  A.  D. 
1450,  without  a  text,  and  without  divisions,  declaring 
such  things  as  he  thought  would  be  useful  to  the 
people.  Amongst  other  things  he  told  them,  in  vin 
dication  of  this  ancient  mode  of  preaching, — '  that 
Dr.  Augustine  had  preached  four  hundred  sermons 
to  the  clergy,  and  people,  without  reading  a  text  at 
the  beginning  of  his  discourse  ;  and  that  the  way  of 
preaching  by  a  text,  and  by  divisions,  was  invented 
only  about  A.  D.  1200,  as  appeared  from  the  authors 
of  the  first  sermons  of  that  kind.' ': 

It  is  no  part  of  our  business  to  enter  further  into 
this  investigation,  or  to  determine  critically  at  what 
point  of  time  the  method  of  preaching  from  insulated 
verses  became  exclusively  prevalent  in  the  church. 
Whatever  excellencies  it  possesses,  and  there  are 
many,  can  derive  no  additional  dignity  from  the  ori 
gin  of  the  method,  which  is  referable  to  a  period  by 
no  means  the  most  glorious  of  Christian  history. 

*  R.  Bacon,  apud  Henry's  Hist.  iv.  366. 


EXPOSITORY   PREACHING.  281 

When  the  light  of  divine  truth  began  to  emerge  from 
its  long  eclipse,  at  the  Reformation,  there  were  few 
things  more  remarkable  than  the  universal  return  of 
evangelical  preachers  to  the  expository  method.  Book 
after  book  of  the  Scriptures  was  publicly  expounded 
by  Luther,  and  the  almost  daily  sermons  of  Calvin 
were,  with  scarcely  any  exceptions,  founded  on  pas 
sages  taken  in  regular  course  as  he  proceeded  through 
the  sacred  canon.  The  same  is  true  of  the  other  re 
formers,  particularly  in  England  and  Scotland. 

To  come  down  to  the  times  of  the  ISToncomfor- 
mists ;  while  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  they  some 
times  pursued  the  textual  method  even  to  an  extreme, 
preaching  many  discourses  on  a  single  verse,  it  is  no 
less  true,  that  exposition  in  regular  course  was  con 
sidered  a  necessary  part  of  ministerial  labour.  Hence 
the  voluminous  commentaries  on  single  books  with 
which  the  press  groaned  during  that  period.  Let  us 
take  a  single  instance,  as  late  as  the  latter  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  in  the  person  of  Matthew  Henry, 
whom  it  is  difficult  to  refer  exclusively  to  the  era  of 
the  elder  or  the  later  Nonconformists.  We  may  sup 
pose  his  practice  in  this  particular  to  be  no  extreme 
case.  Mr.  Henry  was  an  able  and  laborious  preacher 
from  single  texts,  but  it  was  by  no  means  to  the  ex 
clusion  of  the  expository  plan.  On  every  Lord's 
day  morning,  he  read  and  expounded  a  part  of  the 


282  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

Old  Testament ;  on  every  Lord's  day  afternoon  a 
part  of  the  New ;  in  both  instances  proceeding  in 
regular  order.  During  his  residence  in  Chester  he 
went  over  the  whole  Bible  in  this  exercise,  more  than 
once.*  Such  was  the  custom  of  our  forefathers  ;  and 
in  the  prosecution  of  such  a  plan  we  need  not  wonder 
that  they  found  the  body  of  their  hearers  constantly 
advancing  in  scriptural  attainments.  The  sense  of 
change,  and  change  without  improvement,  is  unavoid 
able  when  we  come  down  to  our  own  times ;  in 
which,  within  our  immediate  knowledge,  there  are  not 
a  dozen  ministers  who  make  the  expounding  of  Scrip 
ture  any  part  of  their  stated  pulpit  exercises.  Nay, 
although  our  Directory  for  "Worship  declares  express 
ly  that  "  the  reading  .of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  con 
gregation,  is  a  part  of  the  public  worship  of  God,  and 
ought  to  be  performed  by  the  ministers  and  teachers ; " 
— that  the  preacher,  "  in  each  service,  ought  to  read 
at  least  one  chapter,  and  more,  when  the  chapters  are 
ehort  or  the  connection  requires  it ; "  yet  it  is  undeni 
ably  the  common  practice  to  confine  this  service,  which 
is  treated  as  something  almost  supererogatory,  to  the 
Lord's  day  morning.  Now  while  we  are  zealous  in 
maintaining,  that  the  Christian  minister  should  not  be 
bound  down  by  any  imperative  rubric  or  calendar  as 
to  the  portion  which  he  shall  read,  we  cannot  but 

*  Williams,  Life  of  Henry,  c.  x. 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  283 

blush  when  we  compare  our  actual  performances  in 
this  kind  with  those  of  many  sister  churches  who  have 
chosen  to  be  guided  by  more  strict  liturgical  arrange 
ments. 

3.  The  expository  method  is  adapted  to  secure  the 
greatest  amount  of  scriptural  knowledge  to  both 
preacher  and  hearers.  It  needs  no  argument,  we 
trust,  to  sustain  the  position  that  every  minister  of  the 
gospel  should  be  mighty  in  the  Scriptures  ;  familiar 
with  the  whole  text ;  versed  in  the  best  commen 
taries  ;  at  home  in  every  portion  of  both  Testaments  ; 
and  accustomed  to  grapple  with  the  most  perplexing 
difficulties.  This  is  the  appropriate  and  peculiar 
field  of  clerical  study.  It  is  obvious  that  the  pulpit 
exercises  of  every  diligent  minister  will  give  direction 
and  colour  to  his  private  lucubrations.  In  order  to 
success  and  usefulness  in  any  species  of  discourse,  the 
preacher  must  love  his  work,  and  must  have  it  con 
stantly  before  his  mind.  He  must  be  possessed  of  an 
enthusiasm  which  shall  never  suffer  him  to  forget  the 
impending  task.  His  reading,  his  meditation,  and 
even  his  casual  trains  of  thought,  must  perpetually 
revert  to  the  performances  of  the  Sabbath.  And  we 
take  pleasure  in  believing  that  such  is  actually  the 
case  with  a  large  proportion  of  clergymen. 

Now  it  must  not  be  concealed  that  the  popular 
and  prevalent  mode  of  sermonizing,  however  favour- 


284:  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

able  it  may  be  to  professional  zeal  of  this  kind,  and 
to  the  cultivation  of  mental  habits,  does  by  no  means 
lead  in  any  equal  measure  to  the  laborious  study  of 
the  Scriptures.  The  text,  it  is  true,  must  be  a  frag 
ment  of  the  word  of  God  ;  and  it  may  be  confirmed 
and  illustrated  by  parallel  or  analogous  passages. 
But  where  no  extended  exposition  is  attempted,  the 
preacher  is  naturally  induced  to  draw  upon  sys 
tematic  treatises,  philosophical  theories,  works  of 
mere  literature,  or  his  own  ingenuity  of  invention, 
and  fertility  of  imagination,  for  such  a  train  of 
thought  as,  under  the  given  topic,  may  claim  the 
praise  of  novelty.  We  are  aware  that  with  many  it 
is  far  otherwise,  and  that  there  are  preachers  who  are 
wont  to  select  such  texts  as  necessarily  draw  after 
them  a  full  interpretation  of  all  the  foregoing  and  fol 
lowing  context ;  and  such  sermons  are,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  expositions.  But  we  also  know,  that  to 
compose  a  sermon  upon  a  text  of  Scripture,  with  very 
little  reference  to  its  position  in  the  word  of  God,  and 
a  very  little  inquiry  as  to  the  intent  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
words,  is  a  thing  not  only  possible,  but  common. 
The  evil  grows  apace,  wherever  the  rhetorical  aspect 
of  preaching  attracts  undue  attention  ;  and  the  desire 
to  be  original,  striking,  ingenious,  and  elegant,  super 
sedes  the  earnest  endeavour  to  be  scriptural. 

This  abuse  is  in  a  good  degree  precluded  by  the 


EXPOSITORY   PREACHING.  285 

method  of  exposition.  The  minister  who  from  week 
to  week  is  labouring  to  elucidate  some  important 
book  of  Scripture,  has  this  kept  forcibly  before  his 
mind.  It  will  necessarily  be  the  chief  subject  of  his 
studies.  Whatever  else  he  may  neglect,  he  will,  if 
he  is  a  conscientious  man,  sedulously  peruse  and 
ponder  those  portions  which  he  is  to  explain  ;  using 
every  auxiliary,  and  especially  comparing  Scripture 
with  Scripture.  Suppose  him  to  pursue  this  regular 
investigation  of  any  one  book,  for  several  successive 
months,  and  we  perceive  that  he  must  be  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  the  very  word  of  truth,  vastly  more  ex 
tensive,  distinct,  and  profound,  than  can  fall  to  the 
lot  of  one  who,  perhaps  for  no  two  discourses  to 
gether,  finds  himself  in  the  same  part  of  the  canon. 
Two  men  practising  upon  the  two  methods,  each  in 
an  exclusive  manner,  may  severally  gain  an  equal 
measure  of  intellectual  discipline  and  real  knowledge, 
but  their  attainments  will  differ  in  kind.  The  one  is 
driven  from  the  variety  of  his  topics  to  a  fitful  and 
fragmentary  study  of  the  Bible ;  the  other  is  bound 
down  to  a  systematic  and  unbroken  investigation  of 
consecutive  truths.  Consider,  also,  how  much  more 
of  the  pure  teachings  of  the  Spirit,  accompanied  with 
suitable  explanation,  necessarily  occupies  the  mind  of 
the  preacher  in  one  method  than  in  the  other. 

If   such  is   the  influence,   with  respect  to    the 


286  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

preacher  himself,  who,  under  any  system,  is  still  free 
to  devote  his  mind  to  scriptural  study,  how  much 
greater  is  it  not  likely  to  be  with  respect  to  the 
hearers,  whose  habits  of  investigation  almost  always 
receive  their  character  from  the  sermons  to  which 
they  listen?  Perhaps  none  will  deny  that  every 
hearer  should  be  made  as  fully  acquainted  with  the 
whole  word  of  God,  as  is  practicable.  But  where,  by 
the  mass  of  Christian  people,  is  this  knowledge  to  be 
obtained,  except  at  church  ?  The  truth  is,  the  scrip 
tural  knowledge  possessed  by  our  ordinary  congrega 
tions,  amidst  all  our  boasted  light  and  improvement, 
bears  no  comparison  with  that  of  the  Scottish  peas 
antry  of  the  last  generation,  who,  from  very  infancy, 
were  taught  to  follow  the  preacher,  in  their  little 
Bibles,  as  he  expounded  in  regular  course.  If  long 
habit  had  not  prepossessed  us,  we  should  doubtless 
agree  at  once  to  the  proposition,  that  all  the  more  car 
dinal  books  of  Scripture  should  be  fully  expounded  in 
every  church,  if  not  once  during  the  life  of  a  single 
preacher,  certainly  once  during  each  generation ;  in 
order  that  no  man  should  grdw  up  without  the  oppor 
tunity  of  hearing  the  great  body  of  scriptural  truth 
laid  open.  And  considering  the  Bible  as  our  only 
authentic  document,  this  method  seems  so  natural, 
that  the  burden  of  proof  may  fairly  be  thrown  on  such 
as  have  well  nigh  succeeded  in  excluding  it.  There 


EXPOSITORY    PEEACHING.  287 

is  something  beautiful  in  the  very  idea  of  training  up 
a  whole  congregation  in  the  regular  study  of  the  holy 
Scriptures.  And  if  we  were  called  upon  to  devise  a 
plan  for  inducing  people  to  read  the  Bible  more 
diligently,  we  could  think  of  none  as  likely  to  attain 
the  end.  "When  hearers  know  that  a  certain  portion 
of  Scripture  is  to  be  explained  on  the  ensuing  Lord's 
day,  they  will  naturally  be  led  to  examine  it  during 
the  week,  and  will  thus  be  prepared  to  listen  with 
greatly  increased  advantage  to  what  may  be  offered. 
This  is  precisely  the  exercise  which  Chrysostom  rec 
ommends  to  his  hearers  in  his  first  homily  on  Mat 
thew.'"  The  same  Father  seems  also  to  have  some 
times  thrown  out  to  his  hearers  difficult  questions,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  stimulated  to  inquiry. 
"  Wherefore,"  he  says,  "  have  I  presented  the  diffi 
culty  and  not  appended  its  solution  ?  Because  it  is 
my  purpose  to  accustom  you,  not  always  to  receive 
food  already  prepared  ;  but  often  to  search  for  the 
explanation  yourselves.  Just  as  it  is  with  the  doves, 
which  as  long  as  their  young  remain  in  the  nest, 
feed  them  from  their  own  bills  ;  but  as  soon  as  they 
are  large  enough  to  be  fledged  and  leave  the  nest, 


rbv  \6yov,  Se6fj.e6a  Kal  Trapa.Ka\ov- 

,   oirep  Kal   tirl  ruv  &\\cav  ypacpcav  TreTrotifjKa^tei',   TrpoerAa^u/Saj/etj/  rfyv 
TV}S  yparpris,  yv  ctz/  /xeAAc5,uei/  tfayeiffOai,  'Iva  r%  yvucrei  r)  avd- 
irpO(ro8otroiov<ru,  (6  Kal  eirl  rov  cvvovxov  yeyove),  TroAAr/j/ 
fi>Ko\iav  riuv. 


288  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

cease  to  do  thus.  For,  while  they  bring  them  com  in 
their  bills,  they  only  show  it  to  them  ;  and  when  the 
young  ones  expect  nourishment,  and  draw  nigh,  the 
mother  lets  it  fall  upon  the  earth,  and  the  little  ones 
pick  it  up."  *  If  Scripture  difficulties  are  in  our  day 
often  started  in  the  pulpit,  and  often  left  unresolved, 
we  are  not  prepared  to  say  whether  it  is  exactly  with 
the  motive  avowed  by  this  great  preacher.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  able  elucidation  of  dark  places,  and  the 
reconciling  of  seeming  contradictions,  occupy  far  less 
room  in  the  sermons  which  we  nowadays  preach, 
than  they  did  in  those  which  have  come  down  to  us 
from  a  former  age.  Not  many  clergymen  adopt 
the  method  of  Bishop  Horsely,  who  was  accustomed 
to  select  difficult  texts,  in  order  that  his  preaching 
might  be  in  the  highest  possible  degree,  an  aid  to  the 
inquiries  of  his  hearers.  And  unless  scriptural  doubts 
are  resolved  from  the  sacred  desk,  it  is  plain  that  the 
great  body  of  our  congregations  are  likely  to  remain 
in  darkness  as  long  as  they  live.  But  he  who  pro 
poses  to  analyse  and  interpret  any  considerable  por 
tion  of  the  Bible,  in  regular  order,  cannot  evade  this 
labour,  but  must  repeatedly  confront  the  most  diffi 
cult  passages,  and  prepare  himself  to  make  them  in 
telligible.  It  would  be  easy  to  expatiate  on  this 
topic,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  awaken  some 

*  Vol.  iii.  p.  103. 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  289 

doubt  as  to  the  expediency  of  banishing  formal  expo 
sition  from  the  church  assembly. 

4.  The  expository  method  of  preaching  is  best  fitted 
to  communicate  the  knowledge  of  scriptural  truth  in 
its  connection.  The  knowledge  of  the  Bible  is  some 
thing  more  than  the  knowledge  of  its  isolated  sen 
tences.  It  includes  a  full  acquaintance  with  the  rela 
tion  which  every  proposition  sustains  to  the  narrative 
or  argument  of  which  it  is  a  part.  This  is  particu 
larly  true  of  trains  of  reasoning  where  every  thing  de 
pends  on  a  cognizance  of  the  links  wThich  connect  the 
several  truths,  and  the  order  in  which  those  truths 
are  presented.  Large  portions  of  holy  writ  are 
closely  argumentative  and  can  be  understood  in  their 
true  intention  only  when  the  whole  scope  and  sequence 
of  the  terms  are  considered.  This  logical  connection  is 
no  less  the  result  of  inspiration  than  is  any  individual 
statement.  In  some  books  of  Scripture  the  argument 
runs  from  beginning  to  end,  and  the  clew  to  the  whole 
is  to  be  sought  in  the  analysis  of  the  reasoning.  As 
instances  of  this  we  may  cite  the  epistles  to  the  Ro 
mans  and  to  the  Hebrews,  of  which  no  man  can  have 
any  adequate  conception  who  has  not  been  familiar 
with  all  their  parts  as  constituting  a  logical  whole. 
This,  however,  is  so  universally  conceded  as  a  first 
principle  of  hermeneutics,  that  it  is  needless  to  press 
it  further.  But  it  is  not  so  generally  perceived,  that 
13 


290  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACIIING. 

in  the  other  methods  of  preaching  this  great  advan 
tage  is  sacrificed.  It  is  true  that  a  man  may  announce 
as  his  text  a  single  verse  or  clause  of  a  verse,  and  then 
offer  a  full  and  satisfactory  elucidation  of  the  whole 
context ;  but,  so  far  as  this  is  done,  the  sermon  is  expos 
itory,  and  falls  under  the  kind  which  we  recommend. 
But  this  species  of  discourse  is  becoming  more  and 
more  rare.  In  the  sermons  of  the  Nonconformists 
this  was  usually  the  plan  of  proceeding.  .  In  modern 
sermons,  there  is,  for  the  most  part,  nothing  which 
resembles  it.  A  text  is  taken,  usually  with  a  view  to 
some  preconceived  subject ;  a  proposition  is  deduced 
from  the  text ;  and  this  is  confirmed  or  illustrated  by 
a  series  of  statements  which  would  have  been  pre 
cisely  the  same  if  any  similar  verse,  in  any  other  part 
of  the  record,  had  been  chosen.  Here  there  is  no  in 
terpretation,  for  there  is  no  pretence  of  it.  There 
may  be  able  theological  discussion,  and  we  by  no 
means  would  exclude  this,  but  where  a  method 
merely  textual  or  topical  prevails,  there  is  an  abso 
lute  forsaking  of  that  which  we  have  maintained  to 
be  the  true  notion  of  preaching.  We  can  conceive  of 
a  hearer  listening  during  a  course  of  years  to  every 
verse  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  laid  open  in  con 
nection  with  as  many  sermons  of  the  popular  sort, 
without  obtaining  thereby  an  insight  into  the  grand 
scope  and  intricate  contexture  of  that  wonderful  pro- 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  291 

duction.  "Now  we  say  that  the  method  which  makes 
such  an  omission  possible  is  unfit  to  be  the  exclusive 
method. 

As  a  remarkable  instance  of  what  is  meant,  we 
may  adduce  the  sermons  of  the  Rev.  "William  Jay, 
who  is  justly  celebrated  as  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
and  instructive  preachers  of  Great  Britain.  In  these 
sermons  we  find  many  valuable  scriptural  truths,  many 
original  and  touching  illustrations,  much  sound  argu 
ment,  pungent  exhortation,  and  great  unction.  In 
themselves  considered,  and  viewed  as  pulpit  orations, 
they  seem  open  to  scarcely  a  single  objection  ;  yet  as 
expositions  of  the  Scripture,  they  are  literally  noth 
ing.  They  clear  up  no  difficulties  in  the  argument  of 
the  inspired  writers  ;  they  give  no  wide  prospects  of 
the  field  in  which  their  matter  lies ;  they  might  be 
repeated  for  a  lifetime  without  tending  in  the  slight 
est  degree  to  educate  a  congregation  in  habits  of 
sound  interpretation.  The  same  remark  applies  to 
the  majority  of  American  discourses,  and  most  of  all 
to  those  which  conform  to  the  prevailing  taste  of 
New  England.  In  occasional  sermons,  and  monthly 
collections,  where  we  have  access  to  a  number  of 
printed  discourses,  we  are  often  forcibly  struck  with 
the  absence  of  all  logical  concatenation.  The  text  is 
a  sign  or  motto,  after  announcing  which  the  preacher 
glides  into  a  gentle  train  of  common-places,  or  a  series 


292  THOUGHTS    ON    PEEACHING. 

of  thou glits  which,  however  ingenious  and  interesting 
and  true,  have  no  necessary  connection,  "  continuous 
in  their  discontinuity,  like  the  sand-thread  of  the 
hour-glass." 

The  mental  habits  of  any  Christian  community 
are  mainly  derived  from  the  preaching  which  they 
hear.  It  is  fair  to  ask,  therefore,  from  what  source 
can  the  Christians  of  our  day  be  expected  to  gain  a 
taste  and  ability  for  interpreting  the  Scripture  in  its 
connection  ?  Certainly  not  from  the  pulpit.  Among 
the  ancient  Scottish  Presbyterians  the  case  was  differ 
ent.  Every  man  and  every  woman,  nay,  almost 
every  child,  carried  his  pocket- Bible  to  church,  and 
not  only  looked  out  the  text,  but  verified  each  cita 
tion  ;  and  as  the  preaching  was  in  great  part  of  the 
expository  kind,  the  necessary  consequence  was,  that 
the  whole  population  became  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  structure  of  every  book  in  the  Bible,  and 
were  able  to  recall  every  passage  with  its  appropriate 
accompanying  truths.  The  genius  of  Protestantism 
demands  that  something  of  this  kind  should  be  at 
tempted.  Where  the  laity  are  not  expected  to  search 
the  Scriptures,  or  in  any  degree  to  exercise  private 
judgment,  it  may  answer  every  purpose  to  give  them 
from  the  pulpit  the  mere  results  of  exposition ;  but 
more  is  needed  where  we  claim  for  all  the  privi 
lege  of  trying  every  doctrine  by  the  word  of  God ; 


EXPOSITORY   PEEACHING.  293 

and  sermons  should  therefore  bo  auxiliaries  to  the 
hearers  in  their  investigation  of  the  record.  And  we 
earnestly  desire  a  general  return  on  the  part  of  our 
preachers  to  a  method  which  will  necessarily  tend, 
from  week  to  week,  to  open  the  Scriptures,  and  dis 
play  what  is  by  no  means  their  least  excellency,  the 
harmonious  relation  of  their  several  portions. 

5.  The  expository  method  affords  inducement  and 
occasion  to  the  preacher  to  declare  the  whole  counsel 
of  God.  ISTo  man,  who  selects  his  insulated  texts  at 
random,  has  any  good  reason  to  be  satisfied  that  he  is 
not  neglecting  the  inculcation  of  many  important 
doctrines  or  duties.  This  deficiency  is  prevented  in 
some  good  measure,  it  must  be  owned,  by  those  who 
pursue  a  systematic  course  of  doctrines  in  their  ordi 
nary  ministrations.  But  usually,  the  indolence  or 
caprice  which  renders  any  one  averse  to  the  exposi 
tory  method,  will  likewise  withhold  him  from  me 
thodical  series  of  any  kind  in  his  discourses.  There 
is  perhaps  no  man  who  has  not  an  undue  fondness 
for  some  one  circle  of  subjects  :  and  this  does  not  al 
ways  comprise  the  whole  of  what  he  is  bound  to  de 
clare.  But  the  regular  exposition  of  a  few  entire 
books,  well  selected,  would  go  far  to  supply  every 
defect  of  this  nature. 

It  is  the  province  of  the  minister  to  render  plain 
the  difficulties  of  the  Bible,  and  this  is  not  likely  to 


294:  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

be  done  extensively,  as  we  have  elsewhere  hinted,  in 
an  exclusive  adherence  to  single  texts. 

There  are  some  important  and  precious  doctrines 
of  revelation  which  are  exceedingly  unwelcome  to  the 
minds  of  many  hearers ;  such,  for  instance,  are  the 
doctrines  of  predestination,  and  unconditional  elec 
tion.  These,  the  preacher  is  tempted  to  avoid,  and 
by  some  they  are  never  unfolded  during  a  whole  life 
time.  It  is  obvious  that  no  one  could  expound  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  without  being  under  the  ne 
cessity  of  handling  these  points. 

Moreover,  it  is  unquestionable  that  many  doc 
trines  are  abhorrent  to  the  uninstructed  mind,  when 
they  are  set  forth  in  their  naked  theological  form, 
which  are  by  no  means  so  when  presented  in  their 
scriptural  connection.  Here,  again,  is  a  marked  su 
periority  on  the  side  of  exposition. 

There  is,  we  suppose,  no  pastor  who  has  not,  in 
the  course  of  his  ministerial  life,  found  himself  called 
upon  to  press  certain  duties,  or  inveigh  against  cer 
tain  sins,  which  it  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  dwell 
upon,  either  from  the  delicacy  of  the  theme  itself,  or 
from  its  relation  to  particular  classes  or  individuals  in 
his  congregation.  K~ow  when  such  topics  naturally 
arise  in  the  regular  progress  of  exposition,  all  hesita 
tion  on  this  score  is  removed  at  once.  The  most  un 
popular  doctrines  may  be  stated  and  enforced,  the 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  295 

most  prevalent  vices  denounced,  and  the  most  daring 
offenders  chastised,  while  not  even  the  censorious  or 
the  sensitive  can  find  room  for  complaint.  For  these 
and  similar  reasons,  we  conceive  the  expository  way 
of  preaching  to  supply  a  grand  deficiency  in  our  com 
mon  pulpit  ministrations. 

6.  The  expository  method  admits  of  being  made 
generally  interesting  to  Christian  assemblies.  "We 
are  aware  that  the  vulgar  opinion  is  just  the  reverse 
of  this,  and  that  there  arc  those  who  refrain  from  this 
way  of  preaching,  under  the  belief  that  it  must  neces 
sarily  prove  dry  and  repulsive  to  the  hearer.  To  this 
our  reply  is,  that  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures 
ought  to  be  interesting  to  every  member  of  a  Chris 
tian  community  :  if  it  is  not  so,  in  fact,  the  cause  of 
this  disrelish  is  an  evil  which,  the  church  should  not 
willingly  endure,  and  which  can  be  remedied  in  no 
other  way  than  by  bringing  the  public  back  to  the 
assiduous  study  of  the  Bible.  It  is  not  every  sort  of 
exposition,  any  more  than  every  sort  of  sermon, 
which  is  interesting.  He  who  hastily  seizes  upon  a 
large  portion  of  the  text,  in  order  to  furnish  himself 
with  ample  material  for  an  undigested,  desultory,  and 
extemporaneous  address,  cannot  expect  to  awaken 
and  maintain  attention.  With  all  their  blindness  in 
certain  matters,  the  public  are  very  sagacious  in  dis 
covering  when  the  minister  gives  them  that  which 


:>96  THOUGHTS   ON   PEE  ACHING. 

costs  liim  nothing.  But  let  any  man  devote  equal 
labour  to  his  lectures  as  to  his  sermons,  and  unless  he 
be  the  subject  of  some  idiosyncrasy,  the  former  will 
be  equally  interesting. 

The  observation  is  very  common  that  expository 
preaching  is  exceedingly  difficult.  Yet  the  writers 
on  homiletics,  as  if  it  were  the  easiest  thing  in  the 
world,  and  taught  by  nature,  almost  without  excep 
tion,  dismiss  the  whole  subject  with  a  few  passing  re 
marks,  and  lay  down  no  rules  for  the  conduct  of  a 
regular  exposition.  We  are  persuaded  that  if  equal 
pains  were  taken  to  prepare  for  one  as  for  the  other, 
and  if  the  one  were  as  often  practised  as  the  other, 
this  complaint  would  have  no  place. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  observed  no  lack  of 
interest  in  such  exercises;  on  the  part  of  intelligent 
hearers.  The  truth  is,  the  Bible  is  made  for  the  com 
mon  mind,  and  as  it  is  the  most  interesting  book  in 
the  world,  so  its  interpretation,  well  conducted,  is 
always  to  be  found  highly  and  increasingly  agreeable 
to  the  majority  of  hearers.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  few  instances  of  any  man's  interesting  large  con 
gregations,  for  any  length  of  time,  by  discourses 
which  were  void  of  scriptural  statements,  however 
elegant  they  might  be  in  a  rhetorical  point  of  view. 
The  effect  of  mere  ethical  preaching  has  been  sorely 
felt  in  Germany,  where,  in  the  greater  number  of 


EXPOSITOEY   PKEACHING.  297 

places,  the  ancient  services  of  the  Sunday  afternoon 
and  during  the  week  have  gone  into  desuetude,  and 
there  are  whole  classes  of  persons  wThom  one  never 
expects  to  see  in  church,  such  as  merchants,  military 
officers,  and  savans.  Teller  once  preached  a  sermon 
to  a  congregation  of  just  sixteen  persons,  the  intent  of 
which  was  to  warn  them  against  setting  too  high  a 
value  on  going  to  church.  "  Let  any  man,"  says 
Tholuek,  "  imagine  a  modern  preacher — as  was  com 
mon  in  former  days — to  direct  his  congregation  to 
bring  their  Bibles  with  them,  and  that  they  might  be 
assured  that  he  declared  not  man's  word,  but  the 
word  of  God,  at  every  important  point,  to  look  out 
the  passage  cited :  the  remark  of  all  elegant  gentle 
men  and  ladies  would  be,  '  Oh,  this  is  too  simple ! ' 
Dies  ist  dock  allzu  naiv  !  "  But  in  the  days  when  this 
simple  practice  was  in  vogue,  every  one  was  inter 
ested  in  exposition ;  and  it  will  be  so  again,  when 
ever  the  public  taste  shall  have  been  reformed  by  a 
return  to  what  was  good  in  the  ancient  methods. 
We  rejoice  to  know  of  at  least  one  instance,  even  in 
Germany,  serving  to  show  that  ordinary  Christians 
may,  with  proper  care,  be  led  back  into  the  old  paths, 
and  that  highly  to  their  satisfaction.  "  I  know  but 
one  preacher,"  says  a  writer  in  the  Evangelical 
Church  Journal,  "  in  my  native  country,  where  there 
are  more  than  four  hundred  churches,  who  practises 
13* 


298  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

biblical  exposition  with  success.  In  his  country  par 
ish,  which  comprises  several  hamlets,  he  is  accus 
tomed  to  visit  each  of  these  in  turn  once  a  month 
(perhaps  oftener  in  winter),  and  to  lecture  in  the 
school-house.  The  hearers  bring  their  Bibles,  and 
even  aged  and  infirm  persons,  who  cannot  go  to 
church,  repair  hither  with  eagerness  and  delight. 
They  receive  neither  mere  fragmentary  and  superfi 
cial  remarks  on  single  words  or  clauses,  nor  a  merely 
edifying  address  on  a  scripture  passage,  but  the  con 
nected  exposition  of  some  whole  book,  developing  as 
well  the  specialties  of  language  and  matter,  as  the 
entire  scope  according  to  its  contents.  The  lecturer 
begins,  at  every  meeting,  where  he  left  off  at  the  pre 
vious  one.  In  the  next  hamlet  he  interprets  another 
book,  as  large  numbers  come  in  from  the  neighbour 
ing  villages  to  enj oy  the  additional  privilege."  Would 
that  we  could  witness  the  same  thing  in  every  con 
gregation  in  America ! 

There  is  one  advantage  of  expository  lectures,  in 
respect  to  interest,  which  must  not  be  omitted.  Noth 
ing  is  more  evident  than  that  the  attention  and  sym 
pathy  of  an  audience  are  best  ensured  by  a  rapid 
transition  from  topic  to  topic.  This  cannot  always  be 
secured  in  the  common  method.  The  preacher,  from 
a  sort  of  necessity,  hammers  with  wearisome  perse 
verance  upon  some  one  malleable  thought,  in  order 


EXPOSITORY    PliEACHING.  299 

to  keep  within  his  preconceived  task.  But  where  he 
has  before  him  a  number  of  connected  scriptural 
propositions,  he  is  not  only  allowed,  but  constrained, 
to  make  precisely  such  quick  transitions  from  each 
point  to  the  next,  as  gives  great  variety  to  his  dis 
course,  and  keeps  up  the  unwearied  attention  of  the 
hearer.  "With  faithful  preparation  and  assiduous 
practice,  there  is  probably  no  minister  who  might  not 
find  this  hapy  effect  from  weekly  lecturing. 

7.  The  expository  method  has  a  direct  tendency 
to  correct,  if  not  to  preclude,  the  evils  incident  to  the 
common  textual  mode  of  preaching.  It  is  an  ordi 
nary  complaint  that  the  sermons  of  the  present  day, 
as  compared  with  those  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
are  meagre,  and  often  empty  of  matter ;  we  think  the 
charge  is  founded  in  truth.  E"o  one  can  go  from  the 
perusal  of  Barrow,  Leighton,  Charnock,  or  Owen, 
to  the  popular  writers  of  our  time,  without  feeling 
that  he  has  come  into  an  atmosphere  of  less  density. 
In  the  mere  form  of  the  pulpit  discourse,  in  an 
sesthetical  point  of  view,  we  have  unquestionably  im 
proved  upon  our  model.  The  performances  of  that 
day  were  too  scholastic  and  complicated.  "  The  ser 
mons  of  the  last  century,"  says  Cecil,  "  were  like 
their  large  unwieldy  chairs.  Men  have  now  a  far 
more  true  idea  of  a  chair.  They  consider  it  as  a  piece 
of  furniture  to  sit  upon,  and  they  cut  away  from  it 


300  THOUGHTS    ON    PJKEACHING. 

every  thing  that  embarrasses  and  encumbers  it." 
But  we  have  gone  on  to  cut  away  until  we  have,  in 
too  many  cases,  removed  what  was  important  and 
substantial.  The  evil  is  acknowledged,  but  it  is  wor 
thy  of  inquiry,  how  far  the  superficial  character 
of  modern  sermons  is  derived  from  the  exclusive  use 
of  short  texts.  "We  certainly  do  not  assert  that  the 
Puritans  themselves  did  not  carry  this  very  method 
to  an  extreme,  by  preaching  many  sermons  on  the 
same  text ;  but  it  is  well  known  that  they  almost 
universally  pursued  some  variety  of  regular  exposi 
tion  in  conjunction  with  this.  Still  less  do  we  con 
tend  that  all  the  evils  of  sermonizing  are  to  be  im 
puted  to  the  exclusive  use  of  brief  texts  ;  the  source 
of  the  evil  is  more  remote,  and  must  be  sought  in  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  But  still  there  is  good  ground  for 
the  position  that  the  prevailing  method  gives  easy 
occasion  to  certain  abuses,  to  which  direct  exposition 
is.  not  liable  ;  and  hence  we  argue  that  the  exclusion 
of  the  latter  mode  is  greatly  to  be  deprecated.  This 
is  the  extent  of  our  demand.  Some  of  the  abuses  to 
which  we  refer  may  be  indicated. 

It  is  by  no  means  uncommon  to  hear  sermons 
which  are  absolutely  devoid  of  any  scriptural  con 
tents.  The  text  indeed  is  from  the  Bible,  and  there 
may  be  interspersed,  more  for  decoration  than  proof, 
a  number  of  inspired  declarations  ;  but  the  warp  and 


EXPOSITORY    PKEACHING.  30J. 

the  woof  of  the  texture  are  a  mere  web  of  human 
reasoning  or  illustration.  Sometimes  the  subject  is 
purely  secular ;  and  often,  where  it  is  some  topic  of 
divine  truth,  it  is  maintained  and  urged  upon  natural 
grounds,  independent  of  the  positive  declarations  of 
the  Word.  It  is  not  merely  among  the  Unitarians  of 
Boston  that  this  style  prevails.  There  are  various 
degrees  of  approach  to  it  in  many  orthodox  pulpits  of 
]STew  England.  The  expository  method  renders  this 
exceedingly  difficult :  being  professedly  an  explana 
tion  of  the  Bible  as  the  ideas  are  there  set  forth.  In 
point  of  fact,  this  evil  seldom  occurs  in  exposition,  as 
it  is  both  natural  and  easy  for  the  preacher  to  open 
clause  after  clause  in  its  true  sense  and  its  revealed 
order.  Expository  discourse  can  scarcely  fail  to  be 
largely  made  up  of  the  pure  biblical  material. 

A  still  greater  abuse  is  that  of  wresting  texts  from 
their  genuine  meaning  by  what  is  called  accommoda 
tion.  This  is  the  extreme  refinement  of  the  modern 
method.  As  if  there  was  a  lamentable  paucity  of 
direct  scriptural  declarations,  to  be  used  as  the  sub 
jects  of  discourse,  we  have  proceeded  to  employ 
sacred  words  in  a  sense  which  never  entered  into  the 
minds  of  their  inspired  writers.  This  is  the  favourite 
trick  of  many  a  pulpit  haranguer,  and  deserves  to  be 
classed  with  the  sesquipedalian  capitals  of  play-bills, 
and  the  clap-traps  of  the  theatre :  in  both  cases  the 


302  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

object  is  to  attract  attention  or  awaken  astonishment. 
There  can  scarcely  be  found,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
single  man,  however  unbridled  his  imagination,  who 
could  fall  into  such  a  fault  in  the  process  of  formal 
and  professed  exposition.  Common  reverence  for  the 
Word  of  God  must  needs  forbid  any  one  while  in  the 
very  act  of  interpreting  its  successive  statements,  to 
exhibit  as  the  true  intent  of  any  passage,  sentiments 
which  no  fair  exegesis  can  extract  from  it. 

But  even  where  the  text  is  understood  in  its  lite 
ral  and  primary  sense,  the  avidity  for  something  new, 
and  a  regard  for  the  "  itching  ear  "  of  modern  audito 
ries,  seduce  the  preacher  into  such  a  mode  of  treating 
his  subject  as  renders  the  sermon  too  often  a  mere  ex 
ercise  of  logical  or  rhetorical  adroitness.  Where  the 
aesthetics  of  sermonizing  have  been  cultivated  with 
overweening  regard,  and  the  exquisite  partition  of  the 
topics  has  been  exalted  to  the  first  place,  we  see 
every  thing  sacrificed  to  ingenuity.  The  proper  basis 
of  every  discourse  is  some  pregnant  declaration  of  the 
Scripture.  But  in  the  elegant  sermons  which  are 
occasionally  heard,  the  real  basis  is  an  artificial  divi 
sion,  or  "  skeleton,"  commonly  tripartite,  and  fre 
quently  of  such  structure  as  to  offer  a  pretty  anti 
thetic  jingle  of  terms,  and  at  the  same  time  to  remove 
out  of  sight  the  true  connection  and  scope  of  the  text. 
When  this  is  the  case,  far  too  much  stress  is  laid  upon 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  303 

tlie  division,  however  ingenious.  This  abuse  has 
grown  from  age  to  age.  It  was  the  natural  conse 
quence  of  exclusive  textual  preaching.  Among  the 
French  divines  it  may  be  said  to  have  prevailed,  but 
it  has  reached  its  acme  among  the  Germans,  who 
have  almost  defeated  our  object  in  these  remarks  by 
playing  the  same  tricks  of  fancy  with  long  passages. 
Thus  the  excellent  Tholuck,  in  the  ninth  of  his  second 
series  of  University  Sermons,  has  contrived  from 
Acts  i.  1-14,  to  produce  a  division  not  merely  in 
forced  antithesis,  but  actually  in  rhyme  !  The  parti 
tion  being  as  follows : 

1.  Die  Stiittc  seines  Scheidens,  die  Static  seines  Leidens  ; 

2.  Verhiillct  ist  sein  Anfang,  verhullet  ist  sein  Ausgang ; 

3.  Der  Scliluss  von  Seinem  Wegcn  ist  fur  die  Seinen  Sec/en  ; 

4.  Er  ist  von  uns  gcschiedcn,  und  ist  uns  doch  Gcblicben  ; 

5.  Er  bleibt  verhullet  den  Seinen,  bis  er  wird  kliir  erscheinen. 

But  as  a  discourse  is  not  made  expository  by  hav 
ing  prefixed  to  it  a  connected  passage  of  Scripture, 
we  still  maintain,  that  genuine  exposition  removes  in 
great  measure  the  temptation  to  these  refinements. 
It  deserves  consideration  that  we -treat  no  other  sub 
jects  but  those  of  religion  in  this  way.  In  all  grave 
discussions  of  human  science,  all  juridical  arguments, 
and  all  popular  addresses,  the  logical  or  natural  par 
tition  of  the  subject  commends  itself  to  the  common 


304  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

sense  of  mankind.  Such  is  the  judgment  of  unbi 
assed  men  on  this  point.  It  may  not  be  improper 
here  to  cite  the  opinion  of  Yoltaire  himself,  because 
through  his  sneer  we  discern  something  like  the  as 
pect  of  reason.  "  It  were  to  be  wished,"  says  he, 
"  that  in  banishing  from  the  pulpit  the  bad  taste 
which  degraded  it,  he  (Bourdaloue)  had  likewise  ban 
ished  the  custom  of  preaching  upon  a  text.  Indeed, 
the  toil  of  speaking  for  a  long  time  on  a  quotation  of 
a  line  or  two,  of  labouring  to  connect  a  whole  dis 
course  with  this  line,  seems  a  play  unbecoming  the 
gravity  of  the  sacred  function.  The  text  becomes  a 
species  of.  motto,  or  rather  an  enigma,  which  is  un 
folded  by  the  sermon.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  had 
no  knowledge  of  this  practice.  It  arose  in  the  de 
cline  of  letters,  and  has  been,  consecrated  by  time. 
The  habit  of  always  dividing  into  two  or  three  heads 
subjects  which,  like  morals,  demand  no  partition 
whatever,  or  which,  like  controversy,  demand  a  par 
tition  still  more  extensive,  is  a  forced  method,  which 
P.  Bourdaloue  found  prevalent,  and  to  which  he  con 
formed." 

But  there  is  another  evil  incident  to  the  modern 
method  of  preaching  which  is  still  more  to  be  depre 
cated  ;  namely,  emptiness.  'Next  to  the  w^ant  of 
truth,  the  greatest  fault  in  a  sermon  is  want  of  mat 
ter.  It  is  not  the  province  of  any  mere  method,  as 


EXPOSITORY   PEEACIIING.  305 

such,  to  furnish  the  material,  but  the  ordinary  mode 
of  handling  Scripture  in  the  pulpit  affords  great  oc 
casion  for  diifuseness,  and  has  brought  leanness  into 
many  a  discourse.  A  man  of  little  thought,  it  is  true, 
whether  he  preach  from  a  verse  or  a  chapter,  will 
necessarily  impress  the  character  of  his  mind  upon 
his  performance  ;  yet  the  temptation  to  fill  up  space 
with  inflated  weakness  is  far  greater  under  the  modern 
method ;  and  where  this  method  is  universal  will 
overtake  such  as  are  undisciplined  in  mind.  "We 
conceive  it  to  be  no  disparagement  of  the  word  of 
God  to  say  that  it  is  not  every  verse  even  of  sacred 
writ  upon  which  a  long  discourse  can  be  written 
without  the  admixture  of  foreign  matter.  In  too 
many  instances,  when  a  striking  text  has  been  selected, 
and  an  ingenious  division  fabricated,  the  preacher's 
mind  has  exhausted  itself.  Perhaps  we  mistake,  but 
our  conviction  is,  that  far  too  much  stress  has  been 
laid  upon  the  analyses  of  sermons.  Essential  as  they 
are,  they  are  the  bare  plotting  out  of  the  ground.  The 
skeleton,  as  it  is  aptly  called,  is  an  unsatisfactory  ob 
ject,  where  there  is  not  superinduced  a  succession  of 
living  tissues  ;  it  is  all-important  to  support  the  frame, 
but  by  no  means  all-sufficient,  and  they  who  labour 
on  this,  in  the  vain  hope  of  filling  up  what  remains 
by  extemporaneous  speaking  or  writing,  "  quite  mis 
take  the  scaffold  for  the  pile." 


306  THOUGHTS   ON   PLEACHING. 

We  regard  tlie  diffuseness  of  many  ministers,  how 
ever  perspicuous,  as  even  worse  than  obscurity.  The 
labour  of  the  preacher's  thought  is  too  often  inter 
mitted  upon  the  conception  of  a  good  analysis.  Our 
fathers  of  the  last  century  used  to  throw  out  masses, 
sometimes  rude,  and  sometimes  fantastically  carved 
and  chased,  but  always  solid  and  always  golden  ;  we, 
their  sons,  are  content  to  beat  the  bar  into  gold  leaf, 
and  too  frequently  to  fritter  this  into  minute  frag 
ments.  Defect  of  thought  is  a  sad  incentive  to  la 
boured  expansion,  when  a  man  is  resolved  to  produce 
matter  for  a  whole  hour.  In  such  cases,  the  effort  is 
to  fill  up  the  allotted  number  of  minutes.  Too  many 
moments  of  sacred  time  are  thus  occupied  in  adding 
water  to  the  pure  milk  of  the  word.  The  dilute  re 
sult  is  not  only  wanting  in  nutritive  virtue,  but  often 
nauseous.  Under  an  admirable  partition,  we  find 
sermonizers  offending  grossly,  and  this  in  a  twofold 
way.  One  preacher  will  state  his  topic,  and  then,  how 
ever  plain  it  may  be,  pertinaciously  insist  upon  render 
ing  it  plainer.  In  this  instance  the  heads  of  discourse 
may  be  likened  to  milestones  on  a  straight  and  level 
highway,  from  each  of  which  the  traveller  is  able  to 
look  forward  over  a  seemingly  interminable  tract. 
Another  will,  in  like  manner,  announce  his  topic,  and 
then  revolve  around  it,  always  in  sight,  but  never  in 
proximity,  until  the  time  of  rambling  being  spent,  he 


EXPOSITOEY   PEE  ACHING.  307 

chooses  to  return  and  repeat  his  gyrations  about  a  new 
centre.  There  is  little  progress  made  by  the  haran- 
guer,  though  his  language  or  his  embellishment  be 
unexceptionable,  qui  variare  cupit  Tern  prodigialiter 
imam.  This  paucity  of  such  matter  as  is  germane 
to  the  subject  in  hand  is  sometimes  betrayed  in  the 
attempt  to  indemnify  for  the  meagreness  of  the  argu 
mentative  part  by  an  inordinate  addendum  in  the 
shape  of  improvement,  inference,  or  application. 

The  expository  method,  if  judiciously  intermixed 
with  the  other,  offers  a  happy  corrective  to  this  fault. 
Here  the  preacher  is  furnished  with  abundance  of 
matter,  all-important,  and  fertile  of  varied  thought. 
He  is  placed  under  compression,  and  compelled  to 
exchange  his  rarity  of  matter  for  what  is  close  and  in 
the  same  proportion  weighty.  We  could  give  no  bet 
ter  receipt  for  the  cure  of  this  tympany  of  sermonizers, 
than  a  course  of  expository  lectures. 

One  word  must  be  added,  before  we  leave  this 
copious  topic,  upon  the  avidity  with  which  both 
preachers  and  hearers  seek  for  novel  and  striking  texts. 
The  most  common  and  familiar  texts  have  become 
such,  for  the  very  reason  that  they  are  the  most  im 
portant.  It  is  unworthy  of  the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  always  in  search  of  fragments  wThich  have  never 
before  been  handled.  The  practice  militates  against 
the  systematic  and  thorough  development  of  the 


308  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

whole  counsel  of  God.  "We  need  not  pause  a  moment 
to  show  that  this  is  an  evil  that  cannot  exist  under 
the  method  which  we  are  solicitous  to  recom 
mend. 

It  forms  no  part  of  our  plan,  in  these  remarks,  to 
lay  down  rules  for  the  conduct  of  an  expository  dis 
course,  though  the  subject  is  quite  as  deserving  of  be 
ing  treated  in  detail  as  any  other  connected  with 
homiletics.  £To  mistake  could  be  more  injurious  to 
the  character  of  such  exercises,  than  to  suppose  that 
they  demand  less  method  or  less  assiduity  than  the 
most  finished  sermons  of  the  ordinary  kind.  They 
are  not  to  be  used  as  a  means  of  retreat  from  the  la 
bours  of  the  closet,  and  he  who  thus  employs  them 
will  soon  find  his  pulpit  services  empty  and  unsuc- 
cessful.  In  the  present  state  of  society,  when  the 
public  mind,  especially  in  our  own  country,  is  trained 
by  the  discipline  of  reading  and  hearing  the  highest 
specimens  of  forensic  and  deliberative  eloquence,  it  is 
vain  to  expect  that  any  congregation  can  long  be  in 
terested  in  unpremeditated  addresses.  We  may  apply 
to  this  whole  subject  the  words  of  our  Directory  for 
Worship  :  "  The  method  of  preaching  requires  much 
study,  meditation,  and  prayer.  Ministers  ought,  in 
general,  to  prepare  their  sermons  with  care  ;  and  not 
to  indulge  themselves  in  loose,  extemporary  ha 
rangues  ;  nor  to  serve  God  with  that  which  cost  them 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  309 

nanglit."  ~x~  We  have  met  with  no  instance  in  which 
permanent  usefulness  has  followed  the  practice  of  de 
livering  unstudied  sermons.  The  preacher  who  at 
tempts  this  is  sure  to  fall  into  empty  declamation, 
objurgatory  invective,  or  tedious  repetition.  Undi 
gested  discourses  are  commonly  of  tiresome  length, 
and  proportionate  dulness.  "Wherever  we  hear  fre 
quent  complaints  of  a  preacher's  prolixity,  we  are 
sure  ourselves  that  he  leaves  much  of  the  filling  up  of 
his  outline  to  the  hour  of  actual  delivery.  Without 
being  himself  aware  of  it,  such  a  preacher  falls  into  a 
routine  of  topics  and  expressions,  and  is  perpetually 
repeating  himself,  and  becoming  more  and  more  un 
interesting  to  his  charge  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he 
is  perhaps  wondering  at  the  diminution  of  his  hear 
ers,  and  attributing  his  want  of  success  to  any  cause 
but  one  within  himself.  The  assiduous  study  of  the 
Bible,  with  direct  reference  to  the  services  of  the  pul 
pit,  is  indispensably  necessary,  whatever  species  of 
preaching  may  be  adopted. 

We  plead  at  present  for  no  more  than  a  discreet 
admixture  of  biblical  exposition  with  the  other 
methods  of  discourse.  In  entering  upon  such  a 
course,  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  minister  should 
introduce  his  first  experiments  into  the  principal  ser 
vice  of  the  Lord's  day :  he  might  make  trial  of  his 

*  Chap.  vi.  §  3. 


310  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHIN<J. 

gifts  in  less  frequented  meetings,  or  in  some  more 
familiar  circle  called  together  for  this  special  purpose. 
And  even  where  the  expository  method  is  exclusively 
adopted,  as  some  may  see  cause  to  do,  the  pastor  is 
to  beware  of  that  extreme  which  would  always  pre 
sent  very  long  passages.  The  expository  plan,  wisely 
conducted,  maybe  said  to  include  the  other.  Where, 
in  due  course,  a  verse  or  even  a  part  of  a  verse  oc 
curs,  so  important  in  its  relations  and  so  rich  in  mat 
ter  as  to  claim  a  more  extended  elucidation,  it  should 
be  taken  singly,  and  be  made  the  basis  of  a  whole 
sermon  or  even  more. 

As  a  model  of  familiar  exposition  we  would  cite 
the  Lectures  of  Archbishop  Leighton  on  the  First 
Epistle  of  Peter.  The  great  excellency  of  these  is 
their  heavenly  unction,  which  led  Dr.  Doddridge  to 
say  that  he  never  read  a  page  of  Leighton  without 
experiencing  an  elevation  of  his  religious  feelings. 
"  More  faith  and  more  grace,"  says  Cecil,  "  would 
make  us  better  preachers,  for  out  of  the  abundance  of 
the  heart  the  mouth  spcaketh.  Chrysostom's  was  the 
right  method.  Leighton's  Lectures  on  Peter  ap 
proach  very  near  to  this  method.'- — "  Our  method  of 
preaching,"  says  the  same  writer,  "  is  not  that  by 
which  Christianity  was  propagated ;  yet  the  genius  of 
Christianity  is  not  changed.  There  was  nothing  in 
the  primitive  method  set  or  formal.  The  primitive 


EXPOSITORY   PKEACHING.  311 

bishop  stood  up  and  read  the  gospel,  or  some  other 
portion  of  Scripture,  and  pressed  on  the  hearers  with 
great  earnestness  and  affection  a  few  plain  and  forci 
ble  truths,  evidently  resulting  from  that  portion  of  the 
divine  word :  we  take  a  text,  and  make  an  oration. 
Edification  was  then  the  object  of  both  speaker  and 
hearers  ;  and  while  this  continues  to  be  the  object,  no 
better  method  can  be  found."  "x" 

Such  a  mode  of  preaching  is  less  adapted  than  its 
opposite  to  make  the  speaker  a  separate  object  of  re 
gard,  and  might  be  selected  by  many  on  this  very 
account.  It  is  now  some  years  since  we  enjoyed  the 
privilege  of  listening  to  the  late  pious  and  eloquent 
Summerfield,  the  charm  of  whose  brilliant  and  pa 
thetic  discourses  will  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who 
heard  them.  After  having,  on  a  certain  occasion,  de 
livered  a  deeply  impressive  sermon  on  Isaiah  vi.  1-6, 
he  remarked  to  the  writer  of  these  pages  that,  in  con 
sequence  of  having  been  pursued  by  multitudes  of 
applauding  hearers,  he  had  been  led  to  exercise  him 
self  more  in  the  way  of  simple  exposition,  as  that 
which  most  threw  the  preacher  himself  into  the 
shade,  and  most  illustriously  displayed  the  pure  truth 
of  the  "Word. 

The  same  idea  was  expressed  by  the  late  Dr.  Mason 
in  circumstances  which  no  doubt  drew  from  him  his 

*  Cecil's  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  812. 


312  THOUGHTS   ON   PEE  ACHING. 

sineerest  convictions  and  most  affectionate  counsels. 
The  words  are  found  in  a  sermon  preached  in  Murray 
Street  Church,  December  2,  1821,  on  the  occasion  of 
resigning  the  charge  of  his  congregation ;  and  we 
earnestly  recommend  to  every  reader  this  testimony 
of  one  who,  it  is  well  known,  was  eminently  gifted  in 
the  very  exercise  which  he  applauds. 

In  suggesting  to  his  late  charge  the  principles 
upon  which  they  should  select  a  pastor,  he  says : 
"  Do  not  choose  a  man  who  always  preaches  upon  in 
sulated  texts.  I  care  not  how  powerful  or  eloquent 
he  may  be  in  handling  them.  The  effect  of  his  power 
and  eloquence  will  be,  to  banish  a  taste  for  the  word 
of  God,  and  to  substitute  the  preacher  in  its  place. 
You  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  that  word  preached 
to  you  in  its  connection.  Never  permit  that  practice 
to  drop.  Foreign  churches  call  it  lecturing  •  and 
when  done  with  discretion,  I  can  assure  you  that, 
while  it  is  of  all  exercises  the  most  difficult  for  the 
preacher,  it  is,  in  the  same  proportion,  the  most 
profitable  for  you.  It  has  this  peculiar  advantage, 
that  in  going  through  a  book  of  Scripture,  it  spreads 
out  before  you  all  sorts  of  character,  and  all  forms  of 
opinion ;  and  gives  the  preacher  an  opportunity  of 
striking  every  kind  of  evil  and  of  error,  without  sub 
jecting  himself  to  the  invidious  suspicion  of  aiming 
his  discourses  at  individuals."  * 

*  Mason's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  366. 


EXPOSITORY    PREACHING.  313 

With  these  remarks  we  may  safely  leave  the  sub 
ject,  commending  it  to  the  careful  and  impartial  in 
vestigations  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  propaga 
tion  of  divine  truth,  and  particularly  to  ministers  of 
the  gospel,  who,  of  all  men  livdng,  should  be  most 
solicitous  to  direct  their  powers  in  such  channels  as 
to  produce  the  highest  effect. 


14: 


SKETCHES  OF  THE  PULPIT,  IN  ANCIENT 
AND  IN  MODEKN  TIMES. 

IT  admits  of  little  question  that  preaching  took  its 
rise  from  the  public  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  No 
one  needs  to  be  informed  how  regularly  this  formed 
a  part  of  the  synagogue  service.  The  case  of  our 
Lord's  expositions  in  this  way  is  too  familiar  to  bear 
recital.  The  apostles,  and  Paul  in  particular,  seem 
to  have  followed  the  same  method.  Indeed,  this  may 
be  taken  as  the  rule,  while  free  utterances,  like  that 
at  Mars'  Hill,  are  considered  as  the  exceptions.  Little 
has  come  down  to  us,  in  regard  to  the  precise  form 
taken  by  the  discourses  of  Christian  teachers  in  the 
early  and  less  rhetorical  period.  The  celebrated  pas 
sage  of  Justin  Martyr  points  towards  the  familiar 
harangue  or  exhortation,  rather  than  the  elaborate 
comment  on  Scripture.  This  we  apprehend  arose  in 
part  from  the  fact — now  very  much  neglected,  though 
.significant — that  inculcation  of  doctrine  was  carried 
on  chiefly  in  the  classes  of  catechumens,  while  the 


PREACHING    AND    PKEACIIEItS.  315 

public  assembly  was  more  employed  for  lively  ad 
dresses  to  the  Christian  people.  Justin  expressly  de 
clares  that  the  writings  of  the  prophets  and  apostles 
were  read  to  the  assembly.  The  Apostolical  Consti 
tutions  doubtless  report  a  well-known  usage,  when 
they  say  that  the  congregation  reverently  stood,  while 
the  reading  took  place  ;  of  which  some  churches  re 
tain  a  vestige,  in  the  custom  of  rising,  when  the  little 
fragment  by  synecdoche,  called  the  Gospel,  is  recited. 
Liberty  was  given  to  the  aged  and  infirm  to  remain 
seated.  In  our  times,  when  people  refuse  to  stand 
even  in  prayer,  such  a  usage  would  prove  burdensome 
,in  the  extreme. 

There  is  good  reason  to  believe,  that  the  portions 
of  Scripture  for  public  reading  were  at  first  left  to 
the  free  choice  of  the  presiding  minister.  After  a 
while,  when  festivals  and  fasts  became  numerous,  in 
genuity  was  exercised  to  affix  certain  passages  to  the 
subject  of  commemoration.  From  this  it  was  an 
easy  step  to  a  programme  of  regular  lessons,  for  all 
Sundays  and  great  days.  But  these  were  far  from 
being  uniform  or  immutable.  Thus  we  find  that  the 
Churches  in  Syria  read  at  Pentecost  from  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  while  those  of  Spain  and  Gaul  read 
the  Revelation.  In  Syria  they  read  Genesis  in  Lent, 
but  at  Milan,  Job  and  Jonah.  In  Northern  Africa 
the  history  of  our  Lord's  passion  was  appropriately 


316  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACIIING. 

read  on  Good  Friday ;  at  Easter,  the  account  of  the 
resurrection  ;  in  both  cases  from  Matthew.  When  we 
come  down  to  the  days  of  Augustine,  we  find  the 
lessons  somewhat  fixed ;  and  it  would  be  easy  to 
make  numerous  citations  from  his  works  to  this  point. 
Antiquaries  refer  the  first  collection  of  lessons,  called 
Lectionaries,  in  Gaul,  to  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  ;  the  oldest  known  being  the  celebrated  Lec- 
tionarium  Gallicanum.  In  the  eighth  century  it 
was  still  necessary  for  the  imperial  authority  of 
Charlemagne  to  enforce  uniformity  in  the  portions 
read. 

When  matters  had  gradually  assumed  their  ru 
brical  settlement,  the  Church  customs  became  fixed. 
The  reading  was  by  a  reader,  or  lector,  who  stood  in 
the  elevation  known  as  the  anibo.  He  began  with 
the  words,  "  Peace  unto  you,"  to  which  there  was  a 
response  by  the  people,  such  as  is  familiar  to  us  in 
modern  service-books.  The  gospels  had  the  prece 
dence,  as  they  still  have  in  the  Missal,  and  were  fre 
quently  read  by  the  deacon.  This  we  suppose  to 
have  been  a  very  ancient  custom,  and  one  which 
might  well  have  a  place  in  modern  liturgies,  where 
the  voice  of  the  minister  is  often  overtasked,  in  op=- 
pressive  seasons  and  times  of  ill-health.  The  sermon 
was  pronounced  sometimes  from  the  bishop's  cathe 
dra,  before  bishops  had  ceased  to  preach,  or  from  the 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.  317 

steps  of  the  altar,  when  this  had  taken  the  place  of 
the  communion  table ;  in  some  instances,  however, 
from  the  ambo,  which  reveals  a  connection  of  the  dis 
course  with  the  lesson  of  Scripture. 

In  attempting  to  gather  some  notices  of  early 
preaching,  we  have  to  grope  amidst  darkness,  most 
of  our  authorities  belonging  to  a  corrupt  and  ritualis 
tic  period.  The  preacher  began  with  the  Pax  omni 
bus,  to  which  the  audience  responded.  We  find  Au 
gustine  asking  them  sometimes  to  help  him  with  their 
prayers.  "  The  lesson  out  of  the  Apostles,"  he  says, 
in  one  place,  "  is  dark  and  difficult ;  "  and  he  craves 
their  intercession.  And  elsewhere  :  Quemadmodum 
nos,  lit  ista  percipiatis,  oramus,  sic  et  vos  orate,  lit  ea 
vobis  explicare  valcamus.  The  preacher  sat,  while 
the  people  stood  ;  as  no  seats  were  furnished  for  the 
worshippers.  Augustine  speaks  of  this,  in  apologizing 
for  a  sermon  longer  than  usual,  and  contrasts  his  easy 
posture  with  theirs. 

Every  one  must  be  persuaded  that  early  preaching 
was  without  the  use  of  manuscript.  It  was  in  regard 
to  expression  extemporaneous.  Here  we  might  again 
quote  Justin.  Socrates  tells  us  indeed,  concerning 
Atticus,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  that  he  committed 
to  memory  at  home  such  things  as  he  was  about  to 
deliver  in  the  church ;  but  afterwards,  he  says  that 
lie  spoke  from  the  impulse  of  the  moment.  Sidonius, 


318  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

addressing  himself  to  Faustus  Kejensis,  writes  tlms  : 
"  Praadicationes  tuas  nunc  repentinas,  mine  cum  ratio 
prasscripsit  elucubratas,  raucus  plosor  audivi."  The 
allusion  is  to  the  audible  applause  given  to  popular 
orators.  Pamphilus  relates  of  Origen,  that  the  dis 
course,  which  he  delivered  almost  daily  in  church 
were  extempore^  and  that  they  were  taken  down  by 
reporters,  and  so  preserved  for  posterity.  "We  find 
Chrysostom  changing  his  subject,  in  consequence  of 
tumults  in  the  street  on  his  way  to  the  public  as 
sembly.  His  discourses  as  now  extant  contain  many 
observations  which  plainly  arose  from  the  circum 
stances  in  which  he  stood  during  the  delivery  ;  such 
as  the  clapping  of  hands,  the  shouts  heard  from  the 
neighbouring  hippodrome,  and  the  entrance  of  at 
tendants  to  light  the  lamps.  In  one  instance  we  find 
Augustine  suddenly  taking  up  a  passage  which  the 
lector,  who  it  seems  was  a  boy,  had  read  by  mistake, 
instead  of  the  one  which  the  preacher  had  premedi 
tated.  The  whole  air  of  his  Sermones  is  that  of  the 
extemporaneous  preacher.  Again  and  again  he  des 
cants  on  the  psalm  which  has  just  been  sung.  He 
throws  in  such  remarks  as  this  :  "  You  see,  beloved, 
that  my  sermon  to-day  differs  from  what  is  usual ; 
I  have  not  time  for  all,"  etc.  And  we  may  here  ob 
serve  that  the  four  hundred  sermons  of  this  father 
afford  the  richest  treasure  for  any  one  who  wishes  to 


PEE  ACHING   AND   PREACHEES.  319 

study  the  peculiarities  of  Ancient  Latin  preaching. 
Gregory  the  Great  says  in  one  place  :  "  I  understand 
some  hard  passages  now,  coram  fratribus,  which  I 
could  not  master  solus."  "  In  the  earliest  times," 
says  Thiersch,  "  it  is  certain  the  free  outpouring  more 
prevailed,  the  nearer  we  get  to  primitive  simplicity, 
and  the  liberal  manifestation  of  the  charismata" 
According  to  Guericke,  the  reading  of  sermons  oc 
curred  only  as  exceptional.  For  example,  Gregory 
says  in  one  of  his  Homilies  on  the  Evangelists  :  "It 
has  been  my  wont  to  dictate  in  any  things  for  you  ; 
but  since  my  chest  is  too  weak  for  me  to  read  what 
I  have  dictated,  I  perceive  some  of  you  are  hearing 
with  less  displeasure.  Hence,  varying  from  my  usual 
practice.  ...  I  now  discourse  non  dictando,  sed  col- 
loquendo"  It  should  seem,  perhaps  from  the  same 
infirmity,  that  he  sometimes  wrote  sermons  which 
were  read  to  the  people  by  the  Lector. 

If  any  should  inquire  how  we  come  to  have  so 
many  extant  sermons  of  the  Christian  fathers,  the 
reply  must  be,  that  they  were  taken  down  by  report 
ers  ;  the  revision  and  emendation  of  the  author  be 
ing  added  in  some  instances,  then  as  now.  Great 
preachers  in  every  age  have  been  accustomed,  also,  to 
write  out  at  their  leisure,  the  discourses  wMch  they 
had  delivered  extempore.  It  would  be  a  great  his 
torical  error  to  suppose  that  short-hand  reporting  was 


320  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

unknown  to  the  ancients.  There  were  many  causes 
which  operated  to  bring  it  into  general  use.  The  en 
thusiastic  admiration  of  eloquence,  which  prevailed 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  furnished  a  motive 
for  seeking  to  preserve  what  had  electrified  the  popu 
lace.  The  extraordinary  amount  of  manuscript,  in 
ages  before  the  invention  of  printing,  led  to  a  facility 
in  the  penman's  art,  wrhich  we  probably  undervalue. 
The  use  of  uncial  or  separate  characters,  in  place  of  a 
cursive  or  running-hand,  in  rapid  writing,  would  nat 
urally  prompt,  first  to  such  ligatures  and  contractions 
as  we  observe  in  many  manuscripts,  and  then  to  still 
greater  abridgments,  condensations,  and  symbols,  by 
means  of  which  a  whole  word  or  even  a  whole  sen 
tence  was  denoted  by  a  single  mark.  Specimens  of 
these,  from  ancient  remains,  may  be  seen  appended 
to  some  editions  of  Cicero.  But  as  to  the  details  of 
the  methods,  we  are  altogether  uninformed.  The  re 
sults  show  that  full  reporting  was  as  such  relied  upon 
by  them  as  by  us.  Those  orations  of  Greek  and  Ro 
man  orators,  which  were  produced  on  the  spot,  were 
thus  taken  down  ;  and  as  soon  as  Christian  eloquence 
began  to  be  regarded  from  its  worldly  and  literary 
side,  the  same  mode  was  applied.  Eusebius  assures 
us  that  the  discourses  of  Origen  were  thus  written  by 
stenographers.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to 
the  case  of  Gregory  the  Great.  Almost  all  the  ser- 


PKEACHING  AND  PKEACHEKS.          321 

mons  of  Augustine  which  remain  to  us,  are  due  to 
this  method.  Many,  doubtless,  received  their  fitness 
for  this  work  from  acting  as  amanuenses.  Thus, 
Augustine  writes  feelingly  of  the  death  of  a  boy  who 
was  his  notary.*  In.  the  Ecclesiastical  Acts,  concern 
ing  the  designation  of  Eraclius  as  his  successor,  we 
find  Augustine  thus  addressing  the  assembly :  "A 
notariis  ecdesice,  sicut  cemitis,  excipiuntur  qu83  dici- 
mus,  excipiuntur  quse  dicitis ;  et  meus  sermo,  et 
vestrse  acclamationes  in  terrain  noil  cadunt."  f  But 
the  authorities  on  this  head  are  innumerable  ;  indeed, 
some  of  our  most  valuable  patristical  treasures  were 
thus  preserved.  Modern  times  and  our  own  days 
have  seen  the  same  means  employed.  The  exposi 
tions  of  Calvin  on  the  Old  Testament  are  from  reports 
of  this  sort,  which  contain  the  very  prayers  which  he 
offered.  The  Commentary  on  the  Ephesians,  by  Mc- 
Ghee,  one  of  the  most  admirable  evangelical  works 
of  the  age,  was  delivered  by  the  author  at  a  little 
weekly  lecture  in  Ireland,  and  reported  in  steno 
graphy.  Some  of  the  greatest  sermons  of  Eobert 
Hall  were  never  written  till  after  the  delivery  ;  and 
some  of  these  were  "  extended  "  from  the  notes  of 
Wilson,  Grinfield,  and  Green.  But  we  need  look  no 
further  than  to  the  orations  of  Webster,  Clay,  Hussell, 
Palmerston,  Cobden,  Thiers,  and  Montalembert,  to 

*  Ep.  clviii.  f  Ep;  ccxiii. 

14* 


322  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

escape  all  doubts  as  to  the  practicability  of  what  has 
been  supposed. 

With  the  secular  advancement  of  Christianity,  the 
argumentation  of  assemblies,  and  the  accession  of 
learned  men  and  orators,  the  simple  and  ardent  ad 
dresses  of  apostolic  times  gave  place  to  all  the  forms 
of  Grecian  rhetoric.  The  house  of  worship,  no  longer 
a  cavern  or  an  upper  chamber,  became  a  theatre  for 
display.  This  is  apparent  more  among  the  Greeks 
than  the  Latins,  and  was  not  inconsistent  with  much 
ardour  of  piety  and  edification  of  the  faithful ;  yet 
the  change  was  very  marked,  and  in  the  same  pro 
portion  we  observe  the  art  of  homiletics  assuming  a 
regular  shape.  It  is  impossible  to  condemn  what  we 
here  discern,  without  at  the  same  time  censuring  the 
pulpit  of  our  own  day  in  the  most  refined  portions  of 
Christendom ;  but  we  are  not  sure  that  a  universal 
advancement  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  would 
not  instantly  put  to  flight  many  adventitious  glories 
of  the  sermon,  and  restore  a  more  natural  and  impas 
sioned  species  of  sacred  oratory.  The  ancient  preacher 
was  frequently  interrupted  by  bursts  of  applause, 
clapping  of  hands,  and  acclamations  of  assent.  Chry- 
sostom  says  : — "  We  need  not  your  applause  or  tu 
multuous  approbation,"  and  asks  for  silence.  These 
tokens  of  admiration  are  to  be  compared,  not  with 
the  devout  exclamations  of  the  Methodists,  in  their 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.          323 

more  illiterate  assemblies,  but  with  the  cheers  of  our 
anniversary  meetings,  if  not  with  the  turbulent  praise 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  great  preacher  last 
named,  found  it  necessary,  therefore,  to  remind  the 
Christians  of  Antioch  that  they  were  not  in  the 
theatre.  Yet  such  signs  of  sympathy  in  the  people, 
when  moderate  and  decorous,  were  expected  and  ap 
proved.  For  example,  Augustine  thus  closes  a  ser 
mon  :  "  Audistis,  lau-dastis /  Deo  gratias" 

In  early  times,  public  preaching  was  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  Lord's  day ;  and  its  frequency  indi 
cates  a  great  interest  in  divine  things  on  the  part  of 
the  public.  It  is  necessary  only  to  look  through  a 
number  of  consecutive  sermons  of  Augustine,  particu 
larly  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  each,  to  learn,  that 
he  was  accustomed  to  preach  very  often,  and  during 
sacred  seasons  for  several  days  in  succession,  and  at 
times  more  than  once  in  the  same  day.  Seasons  of 
extraordinary  religious  emotion  are  always  signalized 
by  this  avidity  for  the  word.  So  it  was  at  the  Ref 
ormation.  Luther  preached  almost  daily  at  "Wittem- 
berg,  and  Calvin  at  Geneva,  as  did  Knox  and  Welsh 
in  Scotland.  And  so  it  will  be  again  when  religion 
is  greatly  revived  in  our  own  land. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  great  body  of  ancient 
sermons  has  passed  into  oblivion ;  but  enough  re 
mains  to  give  us  a  very  corn])l etc  notion  of  the  way 


324:  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

in  which  the  fathers  treated  divine  subjects  before 
the  people.  Of  the  Greeks,  we  possess  discourses  of 
Origen,  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  Gregory  Thaumaturgus, 
Athanasius,  Basil,  the  Gregories  of  INyssa  and  Nazian- 
zen,  Cyril,  Macarios,  Amphilochius  and  Chrysostom. 
In  all  these  the  traces  of  Gentile  rhetoric  are  visible. 
Of  the  Latins,  none  are  so  remarkable  as  Ambrose, 
Augustine,  and  Leo  the  Great.  To  gain  sonic  fair 
conception  of  the  manner  adopted,  it  would  be  well 
for  every  student  acquainted  with  the  ancient  lan 
guages,  to  peruse  a  few  discourses  of  Basil,  Chrysos 
tom,  and  Augustine.  He  will  discover  amidst  all 
the  elegance  of  the  golden-tongued  Greek,  an  admir 
able  simplicity  in  the  exposition  of  Scripture  in  regu 
lar  course,  as  for  example,  in  the  numerous  sermons 
on  the  Romans ;  and  a  fidelity  of  direct  reproof, 
worthy  of  imitation  in  all  ages.  What  are  called  the 
Sermones  of  Augustine  are  not  only  shorter — perhaps 
from  abridgment  by  the  notary — but  in  every  respect 
more  scattering,  planless,  and  extemporaneous,  but 
at  the  same  time  full  of  genius,  full  of  eloquence,  full 
of  piety,  all  clothed  in  a  latinity,  which,  though  not 
Augustan,  and  sometimes  even  provincial  and  Punic, 
carries  with  it  a  glow  and  a  stateliness  of  march, 
which  oftcner  reminds  us  of  the  Roman  orator  than 
the  elaborate  exactness  of  Lactantius,  the  "  Christian 
Cicero."  If,  sometimes  he  indulges  in  a  solecism,  for 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.          325 

the  sake  of  the  plebs  Christiana  of  Carthage,  it  is  not 
unconsciously ;  and  we  seem  to  see  him  smile  when 
he  says  in  apology,  "  Dum  omnes  instruantur,  gram- 
matici  non  timeantur."  He  even  begs  pardon  for  the 
form  fenerat  /  though  this  is  used  by  Martial  and 
occurs  continually  in  the  Digests.  And  of  a  blessed 
neologism  he  thus  speaks :  "  Christ  Jesus,  that  is 
Christus  SALYATOR.  For  this  is  the  Latin  of  JESUS. 
The  grammarians  need  not  inquire  how  Latin  it  is, 
but  the  Christians  how  true.  For  solus  is  a  Latin 
noun.  Salvare  and  Salvador,  indeed,  were  not  Latin, 
before  the  Saviour  (Salvator)  came ;  when  he  came 
to  the  Latins  he  made  this  word  Latin."  "x"  But  we 
check  our  hand,  on  a  subject,  which  from  its  tempt 
ing  copiousness,  is  better  fitted  for  a  monograph.  On 
this  period  of  patristical  eloquence  much  remains  to 
be  written.  There  are  good  things  in  Fenelon,  Maury, 
Gisbert,  Theremin,  and  above  all  in  Villemain ;  but 
we  have  reason  to  long  for  a  work  of  research  and 
taste,  which  shall  present  the  modern  and  English 
reader  with  adequate  specimens  and  a  complete  his 
tory  and  criticism  of  the  great  pulpit  orators  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Churches. 

Pursuing  our  ramble  among  old  Churches,  we 
leap  without  further  apology  into  the  middle  age,  in 
order  to  say  that  in  this  period,  about  which  there  is 

*  Serm.  ccxcix. 


326  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

so  much  .  dispute  and  so  little  knowledge,  preaching 
could  not  but  suffer  a  great  decadence,  when  sound 
letters  and  taste  fell  as  low  as  religion.  When  every 
other  description  of  oratory  became  corrupt,  it  is  not 
to  be  expected  that  sacred  eloquence  should  abide  in 
strength.  Among  the  Greeks,  it  sank  under  the  in 
fluence  of  superstition,  frigid  rhetoric,  tinsel,  and 
bombast.  In  the  Latin  Church,  plagiarists  and 
abridgers  took  the  place  of  genuine  preachers.  The 
method  of  postillating  came  in  ;  that  is,  of  uttering  a 
short  and  jejune  discourse  after  the  lesson  ;  post  ilia 
(sc.  verba  Domini)  hence  the  name  postill.  The  dic 
tion  and  style  of  Latin  preaching  decayed  with  the 
general  language.  Preaching  in  the  vernacular  was 
not  unknown  in  the  "West,  but  grew  less  and  less  im 
pressive.  At  times  of  great  popular  excitement, 
when  crowds  were  flocking  after  crusading  captains, 
or  trembling  before  the  invading  Turk,  there  were 
vehemently  passionate  harangues,  and  we  have  in 
stances  of  street  and  field-preaching.  What  great  re 
vivals  are  with  us,  were  those  simultaneous  awaken 
ings  of  religious  emotion  which  sometimes  stirred  the 
entire  population  of  large  districts.  These  engen 
dered  a  sort  of  eloquence  which  in  degree  was  high 
enough,  but  of  which  few  records  appear  in  our  books 
of  history.  Among  the  most  extraordinary  actors  in 
these  moving  dramas  were  the  Flagellantes,  Giesseler, 


PREACHING   AND   PREACHERS.  327 

or  "Whippers,  of  the  fourteenth  century.  We  find  an 
account  of  the  entrance  of  these  penitentiary  fanatics 
into  Strasburg,  in  the  year  1349.  The  universal 
panic  in  expectation  of  invasion,  and  even  of  the 
judgment-day,  prepared  the  people  for  singular  im 
pressions.  About  two  hundred  entered  the  city,  in 
solemn  procession,  singing  those  ghastly  hymns  which 
were  chief  instruments  of  their  work.  Their  flaunting 
banners  were  of  the  costliest  silk  and  satin.  They 
carried  lighted  tapers,  and  all  the  bells  of  the  country 
sounded  at  their  approach.  Their  mantles  and  cowls 
bore  red  crosses,  and  as  they  chanted  together,  they 
would  sometimes  kneel  and  sometimes  prostrate  them, 
selves.  Multitudes  joined  themselves  to  their  number, 
for  purposes  of  penance,  and  subjected  themselves  to 
the  fearful  lacerations  of  self-flagellation,  from  which 
the  order  took  its  name.  The  discourses  delivered  by 
these  sombre  itinerants  were  in  every  way  fitted  to 
harrow  up  the  consciences,  and  beget  the  religious 
fears  in  which  middle-age  popery  had  delighted. 

Every  reader,  of  Church  history  is  familiar  with 
the  preaching  friars,  as  they  were  called.  The  same 
enthusiasm,  and  the  same  successes,  attended  their 
progress  from  land  to  land.  That  branch  of  the 
Franciscan  Minorites,  called  the  Capuchins,  is  well 
known,  even  in  our  day,  to  every  traveller  in  Europe. 
The  bare  head,  filthy  robe,  and  tangled  beard,  occur 


328  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

in  many  a  picture.  The  cant  of  these  holy  beggars 
has  received  the  distinctive  title  of  capucinade,  a 
vulgar  "but  impressive  sort  of  preaching,  which  was 
found  very  serviceable  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  In 
the  Lager  of  Wallenstein,  the  most  comic  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  Shakspearian  of  Schiller's  pro 
ductions,  the  camp-sermon  of  the  Capuchin  is  one  of 
the  most  felicitous  parts.  It  was,  evidently,  in  the 
mind  of  Scott,  when  he  depicted,  in  exaggerated 
burlesque,  the  fanatic  preacher  of  the  Covenant  in 
Old  Mortality.  As  to  preaching  before  the  Reforma 
tion,  it  needs  scarcely  be  repeated  here,  that  as  a  part 
of  regular  religious  worship  in  churches,  it  had  fallen 
very  much  into  desuetude.  The  great  preachers  of 
Popery  were  raised  up  as  the  result  of  a  reaction 
against  Protestant  reform. 

The  modern  pulpit  really  dates  from  the  Refor 
mation.  With  few  exceptions  the  Reformers  were 
mighty  preachers,  and  some  of  them  wielded  an  in 
fluence  in  this  way  which  far  surpased  all  their  efforts 
with,  the  pen,  and  was  felt  over  half  Europe.  In  the 
British  isles  the  power  of  the  Word  was  particularly 
felt.  Cranmer,  Latimer,  and  Jewell,  in  their  several 
varieties  of  eloquence,  awakened  an  interest  in  the 
new  doctrines  which  nothing  wras  able  to  allay.  The 
fearless  tongue  of  John  KJIOX,  even  against  princes, 
has  been  noted  as  fully  by  foes  as  friends.  In  the  re- 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.          329 

corded  specimens  of  Iris  sermons,  if  we  translate  them 
out  of  the  atrocious  Scotch  spelling,  and  the  fetters 
of  the  uncouthest  dialect  ever  pronounced,  there  are 
apparent  both  power  and  elegance.  From  that  day 
to  this,  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  have  been, 
above  all  people,  lovers  of  the  preached  "Word. 

Some  of  the  more  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
Scottish  pulpit  are  familiarly  known.  It  was  at  once 
expository,  doctrinal,  methodical,  and  impassioned. 
For  ages  it  was  without  book,  as  it  still  is  in  a  great 
degree ;  for  the  country  parishes  retain  all  their  an 
cient  contempt  for  the  "  paper-minister  ;  "  notwith 
standing  the  eloquent  examples  of  reading  by  such 
men  as  Chalmers,  Irving,  Candlish,  and  Hamilton. 
The  citation  of  Scripture  passages,  and  the  custom  of 
"  turning  up  "  the  same  in  the  little  Bible  of  the 
hearer,  have  given  a  peculiarly  textual  character  to 
Scottish  sermons.  The  great  stress  laid  upon  strong 
and  tender  emotion  at  the  Lord's  table,  the  meeting 
of  several  ministers  and  multitudes  of  people  on  sac 
ramental  occasions,  and  the  continuance  of  these  ser 
vices  during  several  days,  have  contributed  to  an 
unction  and  pathos  which  have  been  extended  to  our 
own  churches,  among  the  purer  settlements  of  strict 
Presbyterians.  The  power  of  the  pulpit  has,  therefore, 
been  nowhere  more  manifest.  !N"o  public  authority 
has  ever  availed  to  silence  this  mode  of  popular  agi 
tation  and  rebuke. 


330  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

In  the  sermons  of  the  Scottish  Church  two  very 
unlike  tendencies  are  clearly  distinguish  able  ;  one  is 
the  fondness  for  scholastic  method  and  minute  sub 
division,  derived  from  the  dialectical  turn  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  the  familiarity  of  the  preachers  with  the 
severe  manuals  of  Calvinistic  theology  ;  the  other  is 
the  disposition  to  give  outlet  to  high  religious  feeling. 
In  some  portions  of  the  Kirk  both  have  been  active 
throughout  the  entire  period  ;  there  have  been  mani 
fest  the  acumen  and  ratiocinative  precision,  as  well 
as  what  Buchanan  calls  the  ingenium  perfervidum 
Scotorum.  This  has  been  diversified  by  the  constant 
practice  of  lecturing  in  the  forenoon  service,  which 
has  maintained  expository  preaching  for  three  hun 
dred  years,  and  done  much  to  mould  the  religious 
temper  of  the  nation.  There  was  indeed  a  period  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  chill  of  Moderatism 
fell  upon  public  discourses,  in  a  part  of  the  Church, 
producing  the  tame  literary  elegance  of  Robertson 
and  Blair.  But  the  same  age  produced  the  Erskines 
of  the  Secession,  in  one  school  of  homiletics,  and 
"Walker  and  Witherspoon  in  another.  The  Ecclesias 
tical  Characteristics  and  the  Corporation  of  Servants, 
did  much  to  stigmatize  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  frigid 
preachers,  and  even  to  open  the  way  for  those  tri 
umphs  of  principle  which  have  since  resulted  in  the 
strength  and  fervour  of  the  Free  Church.  It  would 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.  331 

carry  us  beyond  all  due  limits  to  enlarge  on  the  new 
modes  of  pulpit  discourse  which  have  owed  their 
origin  to  the  brilliant  but  sometimes  misleading  ex 
ample  of  Chalmers  and  his  imitators.  This  great 
preacher,  admirable  as  he  appears  in  his  printed 
works,  can  never  be  fully  comprehended  by  those 
who  never  heard  him.  The  cool  reader  has  time  to 
pause  over  solecisms  of  language  and  excesses  of  am 
plification,  which  were  put  utterly  beyond  the  hearer's 
sense  by  the  thunder  of  his  delivery.  "When  Dr. 
John  M.  Mason,  on  his  return  from  Scotland,  was 
asked  wherein  lay  Chalmers's  great  strength,  he  re 
plied,  "  It  is  his  blood-earnestness." 

The  free  course  of  our  remarks  has  led  us  some 
what  further  than  we  intended,  and  we  must  go  back 
to  gather  up  a  few  observations  respecting  the  Eng 
lish  pulpit,  more,  however,  in  the  way  of  desultory 
observation  than  of  historical  detail.  From  the  very 
beginning  of  Reformation  times,  the  pulpit  has  been  a 
potent  engine  of  popular  impression  in  England.  In 
deed,  we  suppose  that  at  no  time  has  preaching  been 
more  powerful  in  its  influence  on  the  people,  than  be 
fore  the  rise  of  those  corruptions  which  rent  the  An 
glican  Church,  and  drew  off  some  of  its  greatest  minds 
to  the  side  of  Puritanism.  When  this  rupture  took 
place,  it  is  just  to  say,  that  in  many  of  the  greatest 
qualities  of  preaching,  the  true  succession  was  in  the 


332  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

line  of  non-conformity.  But  it  is  impossible  to  ignore 
the  fact,  that  in  some  important  attributes,  the  An 
glican  pulpit  is  the  greatest  of  which  the  press  has 
given  any  record.  As  the  movement-party  was  char 
acterized  by  great  warmth,  extemporaneous  now,  and 
assault  on  the  religious  passions,  it  became  at  once  a 
necessity  and  a  fashion  for  churchmen  to  cultivate  a 
species  of  discourse  which  was  more  learned,  more 
accurate,  and  more  sedate.  We  do  not  mean  to  ad 
mit  the  force  of  the  vulgar  taunt,  that  the  Puritans, 
as  a  body,  were  deficient  in  learning.  The  first  gen 
eration  of  Dissenters  numbered  among  them  some  of 
the  most  profound  scholars  in  the  Christian  world. 
Yet,  as  the  lines  diverged,  and  the  Non-conformists 
were  excluded  from  the  great  seats  of  learning  and 
all  the  emoluments  of  the  Church,  the  difference  in 
this  particular  became  more  marked  ;  and,  notwith 
standing  some  brilliant  exceptions,  it  must  be  ac 
knowledged,  that  in  point  of  erudition  and  elegant 
letters,  the  dissenting  ministers  of  England,  as  a 
body,  are  inferior  to  the  established  clergy.  The  lat 
ter,  indeed,  vaunted  of  this  difference  much  beyond 
any  substantial  ground,  and  sometimes  made  the  pul 
pit  a  place  for  dogmatic  discussion  and  patristic  lore, 
to  a  degree  which,  was  unseasonable  and  offensive. 
In  its  more  favourable  manifestations,  the  learning  of 
the  Anglican  Church  has  been  nobly  brought  out  in  de- 


PREACHING-    AN1)    PREACHERS.  333 

fence  of  the  truth;  especially  against  the  Freethinkers, 
the  Unitarians  and  the  Papists. '  A  body  of  divinity 
might  be  compiled  solely  from  the  sermons  of  great 
English  divines ;  a  library  might  be  filled  with  the 
elaborate  dissertations  which  they  have  preached. 

No  one  could  reasonably  expect  us,  in  an  article 
of  such  limits  and  character  as  this,  to  recite  the 
splendid  roll  of  English  preachers ;  but  there  are  a 
few  whom  we  would  earnestly  commend  to  the  notice 
of  every  theological  student.  Omitting  entirely  the 
great  names  which  occur  in  an  earlier  period,  it  is 
important  to  mention  the  four  bright  luminaries,  Bar 
row,  Taylor,  South,  and  Tillotson,  each  so  unrivalled 
in  his  way,  and  all  so  unlike.  Barrow  Avas  an  extra 
ordinary  man,  as  a  traveller,  a  philologist,  a  mathe 
matician,  and  a  divine.  He  read  Chrysostom  at 
Constantinople  before  he  was  made  Greek  Professor 
at  Cambridge.  He  was  predecessor  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  in  the  mathematical  chair.  Both  pursuits 
tended  to  make  him  the  eloquent  reasoner.  It  was 
the  age  of  long  periodic  sentences,  such  as  appal 
modern  lungs,  and  Barrow  knew  how  to  give  a  son 
orous  swell  and  climacteric  advance  to  his  Demosthe 
nic  passages.  Many  is  the  period  in  his  pages,  which 
for  matter  might  fit  out  the  whole  fifteen  minutes' 
sermon  of  a  dapper  Oxonian  of  our  times.  He 
abounds  in  high  argument,  which  is  more  inflamed 


334:  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

by  passion  than  coloured  by  decoration.  His  noblest 
passages  leave  us  thrilling  with  his  passion,  rather 
than  captivated  by  his  imagination.  He  is  some 
times  too  abundant,  and  sometimes  unwieldy ;  but 
not  dull,  not  weak,  not  quaint.  A  ponderous  earn 
estness  and  a  various  wealth,  strike  you  in  every 
page.  With  Barrow,  multitude  of  words  is  never 
verbosity,  and  length  of  discussion  is  never  diffuse- 
ness  ;  it  is  massive  strength  without  brevity.  Hence, 
we  do  not  wonder  that  the  great  Chatham  should 
have  taken  him  as  a  model,  reading  over  some  of  his 
sermons  as  much  as  twenty  times.  "  In  his  sermons," 
says  Mr.  Granger,  "  he  knew  not  how  to  leave  off 
writing,  till  he  had  exhausted  his  subject ;  and  his 
admirable  discourse  on  the  duty  and  reward  of 
bounty  to  the  poor  took  him  up  three  hours  and  a 
half  in  preaching."  His  bust  in  "Westminster  Abbey 
will  be  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  all  clerical  travellers. 
How  abrupt  is  the  transition  to  the  "  Shakspeare 
of  the  pulpit !  "  Bishop  Taylor,  in  his  own  manner, 
has  had  a  few  imitators,  but  never  a  competitor.  If 
we  except  the  great  dramatist,  no  man  can  be  named 
in  any  department  of  literature,  who  stands  more 
clearly  alone.  iNever  wTere  there  sermons,  we  sup 
pose,  which  purely  for  intellectual  pleasure  have  been 
read  with  such  satisfaction.  In  every  thing  but  the 
outward  guise,  they  are  often  the  highest  poetry. 


PEE  ACHING  AND  PREACHERS.          335 

Imagination  lias  no  flights  more  lofty  and  adventur 
ous,  than  many  which  have  been  quoted  again  and 
again.  He  soars  in  a  grand  similitude,  with  a  boldness 
of  preparation  and  a  sustaining  power  of  wing,  and 
then  descends  to  the  earth  with  a  graceful  undulation 
and  gentle  subsidence,  which  are  absolutely  without  a 
parallel.  The  voluptuous  melody  of  the  rhythm  gives 
a  charm  to  his  diction.  Interwoven  with  these  bril 
liant  strands  of  fancy,  there  is  often  a  subtle  thread 
of  argumentation  which  wins  your  assent  before  you 
are  aware ;  often,  unfortunately,  to  worse  than  semi- 
pelagian  laxity ;  for  Taylor  was  very  remote  from 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  day.  Along  with  all  this,  there 
is  poured  out  upon  us  a  profusion  of  learning  as  from 
a  golden  horn  of  plenty.  ~No  preacher  of  our  day 
would  venture  to  quote  as  much  Greek,  during  his 
whole  life,  as  Jeremy  Taylor  sometimes  brings  out  in 
a  single  sermon.  But  the  reminiscences  and  allusions 
of  classic  learning  spin  from  him  spontaneously  in 
every  paragraph.  While  his  invective  is  sometimes 
of  a  scalding  heat,  he  is  often  tender  and  pathetic ; 
and  there  is  a  scholarly  negligence  in  the  style  which 
charms  while  it  baffles  all  attempts  at  imitation.  It 
must  now  be  admitted  that  with  all  these  claims  to 
our  wonder,  Taylor  seldom  makes  prominent  the  pe 
culiarly  gracious  doctrines  of  the  evangelical  system. 
There  is  a  saintly  calm  about  his  ethics,  which  re- 


336  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

minds  us  of  the  purer  class  of  Romish  preachers,  but 
the  ascetic  directions  and  the  exaltation  of  human  merit 
belong  to  the  blemishes  of  the  same  school.  The 
amplitude  of  his  comparisons,  sometimes  conducted 
with  a  sameness  of  display  which  runs  into  manner 
ism,  did  not  escape  the  censure  even  of  his  contem 
poraries,  and  was  plainly  struck  at  by  the  following 
sentences  of  the  austere  and  caustic  South  :  "  Noth 
ing  here  [namely  in  Paul's  preaching]  of  the  i  fringes 
of  the  north-star ; '  nothing  of  4  Nature's  becoming 
unnatural ; '  nothing  of  the  c  down  of  angel's  wings,' 
or  the  c  beautiful  locks  of  cherubims : '  no  starched 
similitudes,  introduced  with  a  *  Thus  have  I  seen  a 
cloud  rolling  in  its  airy  mansion,  and  the  like.'  "  * 

*  Compare  the  famous  passage  from  Taylor:  "For  so  have  I  seen 
a  lark  rising  from  his  bed  of  grass,  and  soaring  upwards,  singing  as  he 
rises,  and  hopes  to  get  to  heaven,  and  climb  above  the  clouds  ;  but  the 
poor  bird  was  beaten  back  with  the  loud  sighings  of  an  eastern  wind, 
and  his  motion  made  irregular  and  inconstant,  descending  more  at 
every  breath  of  the  tempest,  than  it  could  recover  by  the  libration  and 
frequent  weighing  of  his  wings ;  till  the  little  creature  was  forced  to  sit 
down  and  pant,  and  stay  till  the  storm  was  over ;  and  then  it  made  a 
prosperous  flight,  and  did  rise  and  sing,  as  if  it  had  learned  music  and 
motion  from  an  angel,  as  he  passed  sometimes  through  the  air,  about 
his  ministries  here  below :  so  is  the  prayer  of  a  good  man ;  when  his 
affairs  have  required  business,  and  his  business  was  matter  of  disci 
pline,  and  his  discipline  was  to  pass  upon  a  sinning  person,  or  had  a 
design  of  charity,  his  duty  met  with  infirmities  of  a  man,  and  anger 
was  its  instrument,  and  the  instrument  became  stronger  than  the  prime 
agent,  and  raised  a  tempest,  and  overruled  the  man ;  and  then  his 
prayer  was  broken,  and  his  thoughts  were  troubled,  and  his  words  went 
up  towards  a  cloud,  and  his  thoughts  pulled  them  back  again,  and 


PliEACHING   AND   PKEACHEJKS.  337 

But  a  single  perusal  of  any  one  of  those  beautiful 
passages,  of  which  the  above  is  so  clever,  and  so  cruel 
a  travesty,  will  instantly  obliterate  the  criticism 
from  the  mind  of  any  tasteful  reader.  Though  it 
would  end  in  ludicrous  disaster  for  any  one  now  to 
try  to  preach  like  Jeremy  Taylor,  we  are  persuaded 
that  the  study  of  his  works  would  be  an  excellent 
regimen  for  young  clergymen,  especially  for  such  as 
labour  under  the  diseases  of  coldness  and  lethargy. 
It  would  at  least  stimulate  them  to  warmer  effusions, 
and  would  show  them  that  logic  and  immensely  fer 
tile  learning  are  compatible  with  a  flow  of  elegance 
and  an  exuberant  illustration,  such  as  we  commonly 
seek  only  in  verse. 

We  speak  of  the  "  witty  South,"  as  familiarly  as 
of  the  "judicious  Hooker,"  and  with  less  fear  of  any 
exception.  But  we  despise  the  man,  while  we  admire 
the  genius.  South  was  a  veritable  Yicar  of  Bray, 
trimming  his  sails  to  every  gust  of  popular  or  royal 
favour.  It  is  amusing  to  find  this  scourge  of  dissent 
beginning  his  career  at  Oxford,  with  a  paper  of  Latin 

made  them  without  intention ;  and  the  good  man  sighs  for  his  infir 
mity,  but  must  be  content  to  lose  the  prayer,  and  he  must  recover  it 
when  his  anger  is  removed,  and  his  spirit  is  becalmed,  made  even  as 
the  brow  of  Jesus,  and  smooth  like  the  heart  of  God ;  and  then  it 
ascends  to  heaven  upon  the  wings  of  the  holy  dove,  and  dwells  with 
God,  till  it  returns,  like  the  useful  bee,  loaded  with  a  blessing  and  the 
dew  of  heaven." 

15 


338  THOUGHTS    ON    PJJEACHING. 

verse  in  eulogy  of  Cromwell.  He  afterwards  had  rich 
livings  and  stalls  and  high  diplomatic  places.  When 
it  was  no  longer  profitable  to  truckle  to  the  Stuarts, 
he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  William  and  Mary. 
We  are  now  fairly  beyond  the  region  of  fancy, 
pathos,  or  eloquence,  in  its  ordinary  sense.  South  is 
clear,  strong,  saturnine,  and  truculent.  He  is  a  co 
gent  reasoner,  always  observing  an  exact  method,  and 
establishing  his  point  by  the  most  effective  reasoning. 
He  seldom  quotes,  never  displays  his  reading,  and 
always  advances  with  directness,  brevity,  and  a  sort 
of  bull-dog  fierceness  to  his  purposed  end.  Where 
his  terrible  prejudices  do  not  come  into  play,  he  com 
mands  our  highest  respect,  as  in  some  of  his  masterly 
arguments  for  divine  predestination ;  but  in  other 
places  he  bends  his  tremendous  powers  against  the 
other  doctrines  of  grace.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find 
in  any  language  such  insufferable  rebukes  of  worldly 
indulgence,  as  in  certain  sermons  of  South.  But  his 
dark  and  bitter  sarcasm  is  chiefly  expended  on  the 
Puritans  ;  and  he  leaves  any  subject  to  deal  a  blow 
at  these  enemies,  when  no  longer  in  power.  It  is 
difficult  to  speak  of  his  style  without  danger  of  ex 
aggeration.  It  combines  some  of  the  highest  excel- 

oo  ~ 

lencies  of  human  language.  Being  always  sourly  in 
earnest,  he  never  makes  ornament  or  elegance  an  ob 
ject  of  study,  though  he  often  attains  them.  Rotun- 


PREACHING  AND  PKEACHEKS.          339 

dity  and  periodicity  in  sentences  are  not  sought.  But 
he  is  perpetually  clear,  energetic,  vivacious,  and  mem 
orable.  He  strikes  us  as  far  before  his  age  in  Eng 
lish  writing,  as  having  by  the  prerogative  of  genius 
seized  upon  the  imperishable  part  of  the  language, 
and  as  having  attained  the  excellencies  of  such  prose 
as  that  of  Pope  and  Warburton.  The  antithetic  char 
acter  prevails  throughout,  and  this  always  ensures 
brevity,  and  gives  opportunity  for  that  tremendous 
sting  which  makes  the  end  of  many  a  paragraph  like 
the  tail  of  a  scorpion.  This  venom  is  for  the  most  / 
part  distilled  on  the  Non-conformists.  A  few  quota 
tions  will  not  only  exemplify  his  manner,  but  illus 
trate  the  homiletics  of  that  day,  by  showing  what 
•were  the  charges  brought  against  the  Puritan  pulpit. 
Speaking  of  falsehood,  he  says  :  "  But  to  pass  from 
that  to  fanatic  treachery,  that  is,  from  one  twin  to  the 
other  :  how  came  such  multitudes  of  our  own  nation, 
at  the  beginning  of  that  monstrous  rebellion,  to  be 
spunged  of  their  plate  and  money,  their  rings  and 
jewels,  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  schismatical,  dis 
senting,  king-killing  cause  ?  Why,  next  to  their  own 
love  of  being  cheated,  it  was  the  public,  or  rather 
prostitute  faith  of  a  company  of  faithless  miscreants 
that  drew  them  in  and  deceived  them.  And  how 
came  so  many  thousands  to  fight  and  die  in  the  same 
rebellion  ?  Why,  they  were  deceived  into  it  by  those 


34:0  THOUGHTS    ON    PKE  ACHING. 

spiritual  trumpeters  who  followed  them  with  continual 
alarms  of  damnation,  if  they  did  not  venture  life,  for 
tune,  and  all,  in  that  which  wickedly  and  devilishly 
those  impostors  called  the  cause  of  God"  In  his 
two  sermons  "  against  long  extemporary  prayer,"  he 
thus  distills  his  gall :  "  Two  whole  hours  for  one 
prayer,  at  a  fast,  used  to  be  reckoned  but  a  moderate 
dose ;  and  that  for  the  most  part  fraught  with  such 
irreverent,  blasphemous  expressions,  that  to  repeat 
them  would  profane  the  place  I  am  speaking  in  ;  and 
indeed  they  seldom  c  carried  on  the  work  of  such  a 
day,'  as  their  phrase  was,  but  they  left  the  church  in 
need  of  a  new  consecration.  Add  to  this,  the  inco 
herence  and  confusion,  the  endless  repetitions,  and 
the  insufferable  nonsense  that  never  failed  to  hold 
out,  even  with  their  utmost  prolixity  ;  so  that  in  all 
their  long  fasts,  from  first  to  last,  from  seven  in  the 
morning  to  seven  in  the  evening,  which  was  their 
measure,  the  pulpit  was  ever  the  emptiest  thing  in 
the  church ;  and  I  never  knew  such  a  fast  kept  by 
them,  but  their  hearers  had  cause  to  begin  a  thanks 
giving  as  soon  as  they  were  done."  "  The  consciences 
of  men,"  he  says  again,  "  have  been  filled  with  wind 
and  noise,  empty  notion  and  pulpit-tattle.  So  that 
amongst  the  most  seraphical  illumwati,  and  the  high 
est  Puritan  perfectionists,  you  shall  find  people  of 
fifty,  three-score  and  four-score  years  old,  not  able  to 


PliEACHINa   AND   PKEACIIERS.  34:1 

give  that  account  of  their  faith,  which  you  might 
have  had  heretofore  of  a  boy  of  nine  or  ten.  Thus 
far  had.  the  pulpit  (by  accident)  disordered  the  church, 
and  tht3  desk  must  restore  it.  For  you  know  the 
main  business  of  the  pulpit,  in  the  late  times,  was  to 
please  and  pamper  a  proud,  senseless  humour,  or 
rather  a  kind  of  spiritual  itch,  which  had  then  seized 
the  greatest  part  of  the  nation,  and  worked  chiefly 
about  their  ears  ;  and  none  were  so  overrun  with  it, 
as  the  holy  sisterhood,  the  daughters  of  Zion,  and  the 
matrons  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  as  they  called  them 
selves.  These  brought  with  them  ignorance  and  itch 
ing  ears  in  abundance ;  and  Holderforth  equalled 
them  in  one,  and  gratified  them  in  the  other.  So  that 
whatsoever  the  doctrine  was,  the  application  still  ran 
on  the  surest  side  ;  for  to  give  those  doctrine  and  use- 
men,  those  pulpit-engineers,  their  due,  they  under 
stood  how  to  plant  their  batteries,  and  to  make  their 
attacks  perfectly  well ;  and  knew  that  by  pleasing 
the  wife,  they  should  not  fail  to  preach  the  husband 
in  their  pocket."  Our  own  day  might  learn  a  lesson 
from  the  fling  at  the  prophetic  preachers,  who  inter 
preted  Scripture,  "  as  if,  forsooth,  there  could  not  be  so 
much  as  a  few  houses  fired,  a  few  ships  taken,  or  any 
other  calamity  befall  this  little  corner  of  the  world, 
but  that  some  apocalyptic  ignoramus  or  other  must 
presently  find  and  pick  it  out  of  some  abused  mar- 


34:2  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

tyred  prophecy  of  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  or  the  Revela 
tion."  It  was  South,  who,  in  a  sermon  said  of  Milton, 
"  as  the  Latin  advocate,  who,  like  a  'blind  adder,  has 
spit  so  much  poison  upon  the  king's  person  ~"  and 
who  says  of  the  opposition  to  liturgies  :  "I  question 
not,  but  that  fanatic  fury  was  then  at  that  height, 
that  they  would  have  even  laughed  at  Christ  himself 
in  his  devotions,  had  he  ~but  used  his  own  prayer" 
But  one  grows  weary  of  malice,  however  epigram 
matic.  When  the  same  edge  is  turned  against  pre 
vailing  sins,  especially  among  courtiers,  it  does  great 
execution.  "We  would  send  no  man  to  South,  for 
gentle,  persuasive,  melting,  spiritual  instruction  ;  "but 
the  scholar  may  gain  from  him  many  lessons  of  dia 
lectic  force,  of  directness  and  pungency,  of  earnest, 
indignant  invective,  and  of  pithy,  apothegmatic  dec 
lamation.  The  vice  of  his  method  is  indicated  by  one 
of  his  own  sayings  :  "  That  is  not  wit,  which  comport- 
eth  not  with  wisdom." 

It  is  refreshing  to  turn  from  such  a  malignant,  to 
the  sweet  and  gentle  Tillotson.  The  good  archbish 
op's  father  was  a  Yorkshire  clothier,  a  stern  Calvinist ; 
perhaps  this  may  account  for  the  son's  mildness  to 
wards  dissent.  But  in  Kneller's  great  portrait  at  Lam 
beth,  we  discern  the  unmistakable  lineaments  of  holy 
peace,  joined  with  every  thing  that  a  wise  churchman 
might  wish  in  the  personal  presence  of  a  primate.  In 


PKEAOHING    AND    PKEACIIEKS.  343 

this,  though  for  other  reasons  we  might  compare  the 
picture  with  that  of  Bossuet,  which  ennobles  the  gal 
lery  of  his  native  Dijon.  Burnet  testifies  of  Tillotson, 
after  long  acquaintance,  that  "  he  had  a  clear  head, 
with  a  most  tender  and  compassionate  heart ;  he  was 
a  faithful  and  zealous  friend,  but  a  gentle  and  soon 
conquered  enemy  ;  his  notions  of  morality  were  fine 
and  sublime,  his  thread  of  reasoning  was  easy,  clear, 
and  solid  ;  he  was  not  only  the  best  preacher  of  the 
age,  but  seemed  to  have  brought  preaching  to  perfec 
tion  ;  his  sermons  were  so  well  liked,  that  all  the  na 
tion  proposed  him  as  a  pattern,  and  studied  to  copy 
after  him."  Such  was  the  judgment  of  contempo 
raries.  After  his  death,  there  was  found  a  bundle  of 
bitter  libels,  which  had  been  published  against  him, 
preserved,  and  endorsed  with  his  own  hand  as  fol 
lows  :  "  I  forgive  the  authors  of  these  books,  and 
pray  God  that  he  may,  also,  forgive  them."  When 
the  Huguenot  Refugees  sought  the  prayers  of  the 
Church,  Beveridge,  with  genuine  Episcopalian  eti 
quette,  scrupled  to  read  a  brief  to  this  effect,  in  Can 
terbury  Cathedral,  because  it  was  against  some  rubric. 
"  Doctor,  doctor,"  replied  the  wiser,  greater  Tillotson, 
"  Charity  is  above  rubrics."  "We  are  not  to  suppose, 
however,  because  the  archbishop  was  good  and  gen 
tle,  that  he  was  either  feeble  in  argument  or  tame  in 
controversy.  Against  both  infidels  and  papists,  his 


344  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

sermons  afford  some  of  the  most  powerful  apologetic 
treatises  which  have  ever  been  composed.  His  argu 
ment  on  Transubstantiation  would  singly  be  sufficient 
to  make  the  fortune  of  a  common  disputant.  Vulgar 
minds  so  commonly  think  that  what  is  very  clear 
must  be  very  shallow,  that  reasoners  of  great  sim 
plicity  and  perspicuity  are  in  danger  of  losing  credit ; 
and  such  we  believe  has  been  the  case  with  Tillotson, 
in  our  day.  He  was  so  little  offensive  to  Dissenters, 
being  indeed  the  friend  of  John  Howe,  that  his  works 
would  have  been  widely  read  and  long  preserved  in 
our  churches,  if  the  stature  of  his  theology  had  not 
fallen  far  below  the  mark  which  Evangelical  Calvin 
ism  fixes  as  a  standard.  But  there  is  a  boundless 
store  of  wealth,  in  all  those  discourses  which  treat  of 
Natural  Religion,  the  difficulties  of  infidelity,  the  ab 
surdities  of  Popery,  and  the  neglected  circle  of  Chris 
tian  duties.  The  style  of  Tillotson  is  gracefully  neg 
ligent,  sometimes  even  flat,  but  generally  agreeable, 
invariably  perspicuous,  and  at  times  eminently  happy, 
from  his  idiomatic  English ;  it  is  well  known  that 
Addison  took  him  as  a  model.  For  studied  orna 
ment,  and  the  glow  of  oratorical  passion,  he  will 
never  be  quoted ;  but  a  better  model  of  didactic  or 
practical  discourse,  could  scarcely  be  chosen. 

If  our  object  had  been  to  go  fully  into  the  history 
of  the  Anglican  pulpit,  we  should  have  inserted  many 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.  345 

other  names ;  but  then  we  should  have  written  a 
volume.  Among  these  we  should  have  found  a  place 
for  Atterbury,  a  man  of  worldly  character,  but  great 
force,  and  often  superior  to  Tillotson  in  the  elaborate 
graces  and  warmth  of  oratory.  "We  could  not  have 
omitted  Bull,  and  "Waterland,  whose  learned  and  pro 
found  vindication  of  Athanasian  truth  will  abide  as 
a  venerable  and  unequalled  monument,  as  long  as 
our  language  shall  be  the  vehicle  of  sound  theology  ; 
Samuel  Clarke,  the  friend  and  interpreter  of  Newton  ; 
Seeker  and  Ogden,  smooth,  judicious,  and  instructive 
sermonizers ;  Bently,  Butler,  "Warburton,  and  Hors- 
ley,  giants  in  theological  conflict.  But  these  and 
many  others  must  be  left  unrecorded.  The  perusal 
of  all  will  only  serve  to  evince  more  fully  the  justice 
of  our  statement,  that  the  predominent  quality  of 
the  Anglican  pulpit,  has  been  learned  and  extensive 
instruction.  A  manner  corresponding  to  this  has 
prevailed  even  till  our  day.  Sermons  have  been  read 
from  the  manuscript,  with  little  elevation  of  voice,  little 
action  of  body,  and  no  fervour  of  delivery.  As  the 
liturgy  has  become  the  crowning  part  of  public  ser 
vices,  the  sermon  has  become  more  attenuated  in 
matter  and  curtailed  in  length  ;  until  in  many  a  fash 
ionable  church  and  chapel,  there  is  a  cold  essay  of 
fifteen  minutes.  The  mode  just  now  is  to  cultivate 
what  is  called  a  "  quiet  manner  ; "  by  which  is  meant 
15* 


346  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

a  nonchalant  utterance,  such  as  may  persuade  the 
hearer  that  preaching,  after  all,  is  almost  a  work  of 
supererogation.  There  have  indeed  been  Simeons, 
Melvilles,  and  McNeiles  ;  but  these  are  rarce  aves  in 
the  Anglican  flock.  Though  a  Scotchman,  Blair  was 
in  all  respects  a  sermonizer  after  the  English  heart, 
and  his  discourses  had  immense  currency  south  of  the 
Tweed.  No  manly  critic  can  read  without  contempt 
his  pretended  survey  of  the  British  pulpit,  in  his  Lec 
tures.  Amply  has  the  truth  been  avenged  by  John 
Foster's  strictures  on  the  once  famous  sermons  of 
Blair  himself.  "  After  reading  five  or  six  sermons," 
says  Foster,  "  we  become  assured  that  we  must  per 
fectly  see  the  whole  compass  of  his  powers,  and  that, 
if  there  were  twenty  volumes,  we  might  read  on 
through  the  whole,  without  once  coming  to  a  broad 
conception,  or  a  profound  investigation,  or  a  burst  of 
genuine  enthusiasm.  A  reflective  reader  will  per 
ceive  his  mind  fixed  in  a  wonderful  sameness  of  feel 
ing  throughout  a  whole  volume  ;  it  is  hardly  relieved 
a  moment,  by  surprise,  delight,  or  labour,  and  at 
length  becomes  very  tiresome  ;  perhaps  a  little  analo 
gous  to  the  sensations  of  a  Hindoo  while  fulfilling  his 
vow,  to  remain  in  one  certain  posture  for  a  month. 
A  sedate  formality  of  manner  is  invariably  kept  up 
through  a  thousand  pages,  without  the  smallest  dan 
ger  of  once  luxuriating  into  a  beautiful  irregularity. 


PLEACHING  AND  PREACHEKS.  34:7 

A  great  many  people  of  gayety,  rank,  and  fashion, 
have  occasionally  a  feeling  that  a  little  easy  quantity 
of  religion  would  be  a  good  thing  ;  because  it  is  too 
true,  after  all,  that  we  cannot  be  staying  in  this 
world  always,  and  when  one  gets  out  of  it,  why,  there 
may  be  some  hardish  matters  to  settle  in  the  other 
place.  The  Prayer-book  of  a  Sunday  is  a  good  deal 
to  be  sure  toward  making  all  safe,  but  then  it  is  really 
so  tiresome  ;  for  penance,  it  is  very  well,  but  to  say 
one  likes  it,  one  cannot  for  the  life  of  one.  If  there 
were  some  tolerable  religious  things  that  one  could 
read  now  and  then  without  trouble,  and  think  it 
about  half  as  pleasant  as  a  game  of  cards,  it  would  be 
comfortable.  One  should  not  be  so  frightened  about 
what  we  must  all  come  to  some  time.  Now  nothing 
could  have  been  more  to  the  purpose  than  these  ser 
mons  ;  they  were  welcomed  as  the  very  thing.  They 
were  unquestionably  about  religion,  and  grave  enough 
in  all  conscience,  yet  they  were  elegant ;  they  were 
so  easy  to  comprehend  throughout,  that  the  mind 
was  never  detained  a  moment  to  think ;  they  were 
undefiled  by  Methodism  ;  they  but  little  obtruded 
peculiar  doctrinal  notions  ;  they  applied  very  much 
to  high  life,  and  the  author  was  evidently  a  gentle 
man  ;  the  book  could  be  discussed  as  a  matter  of 
taste,  and  its  being  seen  in  the  parlour  excited  no  sur 
mise  that  any  one  in  the  house  had  lately  been  con- 


348  THOUGHTS    ON    PliE  ACHING. 

verted.  Above  all,  it  was  most  perfectly  free  from 
that  disagreeable  and  mischievous  property  attributed 
to  the  eloquence  of  Pericles,  that  it  '  left  stings  be 
hind.'  " 

If  we  retrace  our  steps  to  the  last  point  of  de 
parture,  in  order  to  consider  the  preaching  of  the 
Non-conformists,  we  shall  find  abundant  cause  to  be 
lieve,  that  even  after  being  politically  defeated  and 
overthrown  at  the  Restoration,  they  continued  to 
possess  learning,  eloquence,  and  piety,  such  as  were 
worthy  of  that  great  Church  of  England,  of  which 
they  were  really  though  not  nominally  a  part.  It  is 
somewhat  remarkable,  that  notwithstanding  the  ex 
traordinary  theological  interest  which  characterized 
the  Puritans  and  the  voluminous  works  which  pro 
ceeded  from  their  great  men,  these  less  frequently 
took  the  precise  form  of  sermons,  than  was  the  case 
with  their  churchly  oppressors.  Most  of  them,  it  is 
true,  left  numerous  sermons,  but  the  great  mass  of 
their  religious  writings  were  given  to  the  public  in 
the  shape  of  treatises  and  protracted  works.  This  did 
not  certainly  arise  from  any  undervaluing  of  the  pul 
pit  ;  indeed,  an  over-estimate  of  this  instrument  was 
universally  laid  to  their  charge  ;  they  preached  more 
frequently,  more  fervently,  and  at  greater  length, 
than  the  beneficed  divines,  and  these  exercises  were 
attended  by  greater  throngs  of  animated  hearers. 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.  349 

But  tlie  sermon,  as  a  species  of  literary  creation,  was 
less  an  object  of  separate  regard.  They  were  more 
accustomed  to  the  effusion  of  thought  and  feeling  in 
language  suggested  at  the  moment  of  delivery ;  and 
even  when  they  studied  for  successive  months  and 
years  on  particular  books  of  Scripture,  or  heads  of 
theology,  and  preached  constantly  of  the  same,  the 
utterances  of  the  church  were  not  identical  with  the 
labours  of  the  study,  and  the  latter  continued  to  re 
tain  that  form  which  we  now  observe  in  their  pub 
lished  works.  Of  some  great  treatises  we  know  as 
suredly,  and  of  others  we  have  the  strongest  presump 
tion,  that  they  contain  the  substance  of  a  series  of 
pulpit  discourses.  This  we  suppose  may  be  affirmed 
concerning  the  greatest  works  of  the  most  eminent 
Puritan  divines.  "We  need  scarcely  add,  that  they 
had  among  them  some  of  the  mightiest  preachers 
whom  the  Church  has  ever  seen.  Whether  we  judge 
by  extant  remains,  or  by  the  testimony  of  coevals, 
Richard  Baxter  was  one  of  these.  In  our  judgment, 
the  English  language  was  never  more  dexterously 
wielded  by  any  writer.  The  thing  most  observable 
is,  that  it  is  the  language  of  the  common  people,  that 
which  does  not  grow  obsolete,  that  which  is  racy  with 
idiomatic  anomaly,  that  which  obeys  every  impulse  of 
the  heaving  mind,  that  which  goes  direct  to  the  heart. 
His  perspicuity  is  absolutely  cloudless.  "When  he 


350  THOUGHTS    ON   PJRE  ACHING. 

chooses  to  inveigh  against  sin,  or  to  thunder  from 
the  legal  mount,  or  to  depict  the  doom  of  sinners,  or 
'to  awaken  the  slumbering  sinner,  he  is  terrific  and 
irresistible.  In  graceful  description  he  paints  with 
out  a  superior.  And  for  melting  pathos,  such  as 
soothes  the  soul  and  opens  the  hidden  spring  of  tears, 
what  can  be  compared  to  some  passages  of  the  Saint's 
Rest  ?  Baxter  was  often  betrayed  by  his  native  sub 
tlety  and  his  familiarity  with  the  schoolmen,  into  an 
intricacy  of  excessive  distinctions  which  mars  all  the 
beauties  of  his  style  ;  and  though  this  occurs  more  in 
his  controversies  than  his  pulpit  labours,  we  should 
never  think  of  setting  up  his  sermons  as  the  greatest 
of  his  works.  The  eminent  piety  which  breathes 
through  his  practical  writings  makes  him  a  model 
for  the  preacher  and  pastor  of  every  subsequent 
age. 

The  number  of  distinguished  Puritan  preachers  is 
so  great  that  we  should  not  dare  to  attempt  enumera 
tion  ;  and  if  we  used  selection,  we  should  name  those 
who  are  familiar  to  our  readers.  Of  Owen  and  his 
works,  we  have  lately  written,  at  some  length,  in  a 
separate  article.  In  connection  with  the  argumenta 
tive  force  and  profound  experience  of  this  greatest  of 
the  Puritans,  the  student  of  theology  will  remember 
the  silver  current  and  figured  diction  of  Bates ;  the 
sweet  and  simple  eloquence  of  Flavel ;  the  senten- 


rEE ACHING    AND    PREACHERS.  351 

tious  brilliancy  of  Charnock,  like  the  iridescence  of 
crystals  011  the  surface  of  a  massive  rock ;  and,  per 
haps,  above  them  all,  the  majestic  strength  of  Howe, 
a  grave  and  stately  bearing  of  mind,  which  looks 
down  on  the  quaint  antitheses  and  foreign  images  of 
his  contemporaries.  In  John  Howe  we  meet  a  writer 
who  seems  entirely  free  from  the  vicious  passions  of 
his  day,  in  thought  and  language.  He  even  shuns 
the  conventional  phrases  of  the  Calvinistic  schools, 
while  he  teaches  their  theology.  But  he  was  a  great 
Christian  philosopher,  imbued  with  the  choicest  liter 
ature  of  the  ancients,  and  trained,  by  long  meditation, 
to  expatiate  in  tracts  of  spiritual  truth,  where  super 
ficial  minds  will  never  follow  him.  His  manner  is 
said  to  have  been  in  a  high  degree  engaging  and  im 
pressive.  If  any  one  will  collate  his  sermon  on  the 
"  Yanity  of  Man  as  mortal,"  with  the  famous  dis 
course  on  the  same  topic  by  Robert  Hall,  who  pro 
foundly  admired  him,  he  will  find  the  germs  of  the 
latter  in  the  former  ;  yet,  in  every  thing  but  the  ex 
quisite  finish  of  Hall's  style,  we  think  the  palm  must 
be  given  to  the  older  divine. 

The  succeeding  generations  certainly  manifest  a 
decline  in  regard  to  the  annals  of  the  dissenting  pul 
pit.  Even  before  we  come  down  to  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  leaving  entirely  out  of 
view  the  lamentable  defection  from  the  faith  of  many 


352  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

Independents,  and  of  most  called  Presbyterians,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  age  of  great  English  preach 
ers  was  past.  That  title  we  unhesitatingly  give  to 
Watts  and  Doddridge.  Both,  in  our  opinion,  have 
undeservedly  fallen  into  the  shade.  For  fertility, 
facility,  graceful  fluency  of  thought,  charms  of  illus 
tration,  and  delightful  variety,  we  know  no  one  who 
excels  Watts,  in  any  period.  His  theological  whim 
sies  are  well  known,  and  he  is  not  what  we  denomi 
nate  a  great  doctrinal  preacher ;  but  the  warmth  of 
love,  and  the  play  of  sanctified  imagination,  give  a 
stamp  to  most  of  his  sermons  which  we  would  gladly 
recall  to  the  notice  of  the  younger  ministry.  Dod 
dridge  was  a  safer  and  a  graver  mind,  and,  according 
to  all  canons,  a  better  builder  of  sermons.  Some  of 
his  discourses  come  near  being  master-pieces ;  they 
instruct  the  mind  and  elevate  the  heart ;  those  ad 
dressed  to  youth,  and  those  on  Eegeneration,  have 
been  reprinted  again  and  again,  and  have  won  the 
admiration  even  of  severe  judges.  They  labour  some 
times  under  a  fault  of  style  belonging  to  a  particular 
school  of  Dissenters  at  that  period,  and  which,  for 
lack  of  a  better  phrase,  we  may  call  a  sort  of  genteel 
affectionateness,  or  a  tenderness  of  endearing  blan 
dishment  ;  but  this  is  forgotten  amidst  the  great 
amount  of  saving  truth,  expressed  in  language  which 
is  always  clear  and  pleasing.  It  does  not  fall  within 


PREACHING-  AND  PREACHERS.          353 

our  plan    to    enumerate  the    celebrated    dissenting 
preachers  of  a  later  day  and  of  our  own  times. 

To  those  who  have  a  facility  in  the  language,  we 
commend  the  careful  study  of  the  French  pulpit ;  for 
to  speak  of  preaching,  and  not  to  name  the  times  of 
Louis  the  Fourteenth,  wrould  be  like  discoursing  of 
sculpture  without  allusion  to  the  age  of  Pericles. 
Considered  as  a  product  of  literary  art,  the  sermon 
never  attained  such  completeness,  beauty,  and  hon 
our,  as  at  this  period.  Our  remark  must  not  be  taken 
apart  from  our  limitations.  "We  do  not  say  it  was 
most  apostolic,  most  scriptural,  or  most  fitted  to  reach 
the  great  spiritual  end  of  preaching ;  the  results 
show  that  such  was  not  the  fact.  But  viewed  in  re 
lation  to  letters,  logic,  and  eloquence,  as  a  structure 
of  genius  and  taste,  the  French  sermon,  in  the  hands 
of  its  great  orators,  had  a  rhetorical  perfection  as  dis 
tinctly  marked  as  the  Greek  drama.  We  are  con 
strained  to  look  upon  it  in  much  the  same  light.  The 
plays  of  Corneille  and  the  victories  of  Turenne  were 
not  more  powerful  in  penetrating  the  public  mind, 
than  the  oratory  of  Notre  Dame.  Rank  and  fash 
ion,  including  royalty  itself,  thronged  the  church,  as 
if  it  were  a  theatre,  wondering  and  weeping.  Mad 
ame  de  Sevigne,  the  best  painter  of  her  age,  speaks  of 
a  Idle  passion,  as  the  Good  Friday  sermon  was  called, 
just  as  she  speaks  of  the  Cid.  The  greatest  scholars 


354-  THOUGHTS    ON    PEE  ACHING. 

and  critics  of  the  Augustan  era  of  France,  saw  their 
ideal  of  faultless  composition  realized  in  the  pulpit. 
The  culmination  of  the  art  was  rapid,  and  the  decline 
soon  followed.  "No  one  will  claim  more  than  a  few 
names  for  the  catalogue  of  masterly  French  preach 
ers  ;  Bourdaloue,  Bossuet,  Fenelon,  Massillon,  Flechier. 
Many  who  had  a  temporary  vogue  in  their  day,  have 
"been  forgotten  ;  but  these  sustain  the  ordeal  of  time. 
We  shall  offer  a  few  remarks  on  some  of  them,  but 
chiefly  on  the  unapproachable  triumvirate. 

To  Bourdaloue  is  unhesitatingly  given  the  honour 
of  having  raised  the  French  pulpit  at  once  to  its  great 
est  height.  The  judgment  of  our  day  is  coming  more 
and  more  to  acquiesce  in  the  decision  which  ranks 
him  clearly  first.  We  may  see  in  La  Bruyere  how 
degenerate  preaching  had  become  before  his  day. 
It  was  florid,  quaint,  affected,  perplexed  with  divi 
sions,  and  overlaid  with  impertinent  learning.  He 
restored  it  to  reason  and  to  nature.  I^o  misappre 
hension  can  be  greater  than  that  which  imagines 
Bourdaloue  to  have  been  a  man  of  show,  a  gaudy 
rhetorician,  or  a  declaimer.  He  was,  of  course,  a 
strenuous  Papist,  he  was  even  a  Jesuit ;  but  assum 
ing  his  Church  to  be  right,  there  never  was  a  more 
'unanswerable  reasoner  in  her  behalf.  It  is  reasoning, 
above  all  things  else,  which  is  his  characteristic.  Sel 
dom  does  he  utter  even  a  few  sentences,  without  a 


PKE ACHING    AND    PKEACHEJRS.  355 

connected  argument.  The  amount  of  matter  in  his 
discourses,  which  are  sometimes  very  long,  is  truly 
wonderful.  His  power  of  condensation,  his  exactness 
of  method,  his  singular  clearness,  and  his  animated 
force,  enable  him  to  throw  an  elaborate  argument 
into  a  single  head.  The  glory  of  his  art  is  his  magi 
cal  ability  to  clothe  the  subtlest  reasoning,  in  diction 
so  beautiful,  as  to  captivate  even  the  unthinking.  In 
our  view,  his  sermons  are  a  study  for  the  young  lo 
gician.  Even  when  he  is  defending  the  extremest 
errors  of  Rome,  as  in  his  discourse  on  the  saving 
merit  of  alms,  we  feel  that  we  are  in  the  hands  of  a 
terrible  antagonist.  Amidst  passages  of  incompara 
ble  fire  he  seems  constrained  to  indulge  his  propensity 
for  laying  a  train  of  proofs.  Thus  in  his  passion-ser 
mon,  on  the  power  of  the  cross,  he  inserts  in  the  first 
and  greatest  part,  a  series  of  admirable  arguments 
for  the  truth  of  Christianity. 

In  some  points  which  concern  the  outward  form 
of  the  discourse,  Bourdaloue  left  much  to  be  reformed 
by  his  great  successors.  His  divisions  are  bold  and 
numerous,  and  are  stated  not  only  with  openness,  but 
with  a  repetition  which  we  have  seen  nowhere  else. 
So  far  from  hiding  the  articulations  of  his  work,  he 
is  anxious  that  they  should  be  observed  and  never 
forgotten  ;  but  he  so  varies  the  formulas  of  partition, 
and  so  beautifies  the  statement  of  transitions,  by  in- 


356  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

genious  turns,  that  the  mind  is  gratified  by  the  ex- 
quisiteness  of  the  expression.  It  had  been  the  fash 
ion  to  quote  the  Fathers  very  largely.  Bourdaloue 
retains  this  practice.  He  even  seems  to  wish  that 
his  whole  performance  should  rest  on  citations ;  and 
some  of  them  look  like  centos  from  Chrysostom,  Am 
brose,  Augustine,  and  Gregory.  But  his  manage 
ment  of  this  is  graceful  and  masterly.  And  it  is  en 
tertaining  to  observe  with  how  rich  and  eloquent  an 
amplification  he  will  paraphrase  and  apply  one  of 
these  little  Latin  sentences,  often  bringing  it  in  again 
and  again  to  close  some  striking  period,  and  making 
•it  ring  on  the  ear  with  happy  vehemence  at  the 
climax  of  a  paragraph. 

If  the  observation  be  modified  by  our  protest 
against  the  enormities  of  Popish  falsehood,  we  are 
willing  to  say  that  Bourdaloue  was  eminently  a  spir 
itual,  warm,  and  edifying  preacher.  Upon  the  suffer 
ings  of  Christ,  the  love  of  God,  the  vanity  of  the 
world,  and  the  delights  of  heavenly  contemplation,  he 
speaks  with  a  solemnity  and  an  unction,  which  ex 
plain  to  us  the  admiration  felt  for  him  by  Boileau 
and  other  Jansenists.  The  manner  in  which  Bourda 
loue  pronounced  his  discourses  must  have  had  a 
power  of  incantation  to  which  even  their  greatness  as 
compositions  gives  us  no  key.  It  was  his  remarkable 
custom  to  deliver  his  sermons  with  Ms  eyes  closed ; 


PREACHING   AND   PJJEACHEKS.  357" 

and  lie  is  so  represented  in  his  portrait.  On  coming 
from  the  provinces,  to  preach  in  the  Jesuit  Chapel  in 
Paris,  he  was  at  once  followed  by  crowds  of  the  high 
est  distinction ;  and  his  popularity  increased  to  the 
very  close.  For  thirty-four  years  he  was  equally  ad 
mired  by  the  court,  by  men  of  letters,  and  by  the 
people.  To  the  Christian  visitor  in  Paris,  there  is 
something  solemn  in  the  church  of  St.  Paul  and  St. 
Louis,  to  approach  the  tablet  with  the  simple  inscrip 
tion,  HlC  JACET  BoiJRDALOUE. 

Bossuet  wras  a  greater  man,  but  not  a  greater 
preacher  than  his  eloquent  contemporary.  The  rep 
utation  derived  from  his  vast  learning,  his  controver 
sial  ability,  his  knowledge  of  affairs  and  his  strength 
of  will,  we  very  naturally  transfer  to  his  preaching, 
which  was  nevertheless  of  consummate  excellence.  As 
an  author,  especially  as  a  master  of  style,  he  surpasses 
them  all,  if  indeed  he  does  not  surpass  all  who  ever 
wrote  in  French.  The  power  of  that  somewhat  in 
tractable  language  was  never  more  fully  brought  out 
than  by  Bossuet,  to  whom  the  crown  of  eloquence  is, 
therefore,  given  by  Yoltaire.  He  was  the  orator  for 
courts,  and  we  suppose  no  prince  in  ancient  or  mod 
ern  times  ever  had  a  nobler  panegyrist.  To  learn 
his  argumentative  eloquence,  we  must  look  to  his 
other  works  ;  but  in  his  celebrated  Funeral  Orations, 
we  have  unequalled  examples  of  sublime  and  original 


358  THOUGHTS    ON   PKEACIIING. 

conceptions,  arrayed  in  a  diction  majestically  simple 
and  yet  triumphantly  splendid.  The  term  which 
characterizes  the  discourses  of  Bossuet,  is  magnifi 
cence.  We  believe  it  to  be  admitted  by  French  crit 
ics,  that  his  style  is  as  faultless  as  that  of  any  writer 
in  any  tongue. 

There  are  those  who  consider  Massillon  the  great 
est  of  French  preachers  ;  and  the  award  is  just,  if  we 
confine  our  regards  to  simple  elegance  of  style,  traits 
of  nature,  strokes  of  pathos,  perfect  contexture  of  the 
entire  performance  and  irresistible  command  of  assem 
blies,  and  in  elocution.  Being  thirty  years  younger 
than  the  men  we  just  named,  he  represents  a  differ 
ent  school,  but  it  is  one  which,  he  founded  himself. 
When  father  Latour,  on  his  arrival  at  the  capital, 
asked  him  what  he  thought  of  the  great  orators, 
he  replied,  "  I  find  them  possessed  of  genius  and 
great  talent ;  but  if  I  preach,  I  will  not  preach  like 
them.  Great  clearness  of  thought,  perfect  sobriety 
of  judgment,  profound  knowledge  of  the  human  heart 
and  of  manners,  a  fund  of  tender  emotion,  novelty 
of  illustration,  copiousness  of  language,  perspicuous 
method,  and  unerring  taste,  are  the  characteristics 
of  Massillon.  He  simplified  the  divisions  of  the  ser 
mon,  and  reduced  its  length,  conforming  the  whole 
treatment  to  the  most  classic  models.  He  is  sparing 
in  his  citations  and  unobtrusive  in  his  array  of  argu- 


PEE  ACHING   AND   PEEACHEES.  359 

ment.  Beyond  all  competitors,  lie  dissects  the  heart, 
reveals  the  inmost  windings  of  motive,  and  awakens 
the  emotions  of  terror,  remorse,  and  pity.  In  the 
ethical  field,  he  excels  in  depicting  vice  and  awaken 
ing  conscience,  in  pursning  pride,  avarice,  and  self- 
love,  to  their  retreats,  and  in  exposing  and  stigmatiz 
ing  the  follies  of  the  great.  When  the  aged  Bourda- 
lone  heard  him,  he  pointed  him  out  as  he  descended 
from  the  pulpit,  saying,  "  Hunc  oportet  crescere,  me 
antem  minui."  Baron,  the  great  actor,  said  of  him  to 
a  companion,  "  My  friend,  here  is  an  orator ;  as  for 
us,  we  are  but  actors."  "Whole  assemblies  were  dis 
solved  in  tears,  or  started  to  their  feet  in  consternation. 
When  he  preached  the  funeral  sermon  of  the  King, 
011  the  words,  "  Lo,  I  have  become  great ;  "  he  com 
menced  by  repeating  them  slowly,  as  if  to  recollect 
himself ;  then  he  fixed  his  eyes  on  the  assembly  in 
mourning ;  next  he  surveyed  the  funeral  enclosure, 
with  all  its  sombre  pomp  ;  and  lastly,  turning  his 
eyes  on  the  mausoleum  erected  in  the  midst  of  the 
cathedral — after  some  moments  of  silence  exclaimed, 
JDieu  seul  est  grand,  mesfreres.  "  My  brethren,  God 
alone  is  great !  "  The  immense  assembly  was  breath 
less  and  awestruck.  Yoltaire  always  had  on  his 
table  the  Petit-  Careme  of  Massillon,  wrhich  he  re 
garded  as  the  best  model  of  French  prose. 

There  are   discourses  of  Massillon,  which,  with 


360  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

the  omission  of  the  Ave  Maria,  and  a  few  superficial 
forms,  might  be  delivered  to  any  Protestant  assem 
bly.  The  union  of  simple  elegance  and  strong  pas 
sion  has  given  his  sermons  a  formative  influence  in 
every  language  of  Europe;  and  they  stand  at  the 
head  of  what  may  be  called  the  modern  school  of 
preaching. 

Space  would  fail  us,  if  we  were  to  enlarge  upon 
Fenelon,  Flechier,  Bridaine,  and  other  pulpit  orators 
of  less  note.  Chastely  beautiful  as  is  the  style  of 
Archbishop  Fenelon,  it  is  not  exactly  that  which  be 
longs  to  eloquence.  The  saintly  gentleness  of  his 
temper,  as  well  as  the  doctrines  of  Quietism  which 
he  had  embraced,  were  not  the  best  preparations  for 
passionate  oratory.  Among  his  numerous  and  often 
delightful  works,  the  number  of  sermons  is  not  very 
large.  One  reason  of  this  may  be,  that  he  favoured 
the  extemporaneous  method,  of  which,  in  his  Dia 
logue  on  Eloquence,  he  is  the  ablest  vindicator.  There 
is  a  sermon  of  Eenelon's  on  Foreign  Missions,  which 
is  full  of  fine  thoughts,  and  worthy  of  examination. 

The  Protestant  Churches  of  France,  and  of  the 
Refugees,  produced  some  great  preachers,  of  whom 
the  most  famous  are  Claude  and  Saurin.  For  solid 
doctrinal  discussion,  elaborated  into  the  form  of  elo 
quent  discourse,  the  preacher  last  named  continues 
to  be  admired.  In  our  own  day,  there  has  been  a  re- 


PREACHING  AND  PKEACHEKS.          361 

vival  of  Protestant  eloquence,  in  such  men  as  Yinet, 
Grandpierre,  and  Adolphe  Monod ;  and  Parisian 
crowds  still  follow  Lacordaire,  Ravignan,  Felix,  and 
de  Courtier. 

The  subject  has  grown  upon  our  hands,  and  must 
be  dismissed,  though  we  leave  untouched  the  preach 
ing  of  Germany  and  Holland,  of  the  contemporary 
Churches  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  inviting  field  of 
the  American  pulpit. 

An  enterprising  publisher  might  benefit  himself 
and  the  Church  by  issuing,  under  wise  direction,  a 
few  volumes  of  sermons,  which  should  contain  none 
but  master-pieces.  There  are  a  few  such,  in  each 
period,  which  stand  out  with  great  prominence,  as 
exhibiting  the  highest  characteristics  of  their  respec 
tive  authors.  In  such  a  selection  would  be  found 
Bourdaloue's  Passion  Sermon ;  Bossuet's  Funeral 
Oration  on  Turenne ;  Massillon  on  the  Small  Num 
ber  of  the  Elect ;  Barrow's  discourse  on  the  Death  of 
Christ ;  Jeremy  Taylor's  Marriage  'Ring ;  Maclaurin's 
Glorying  in  the  Cross  ;  Edwar'ds  on  "  Their  feet  shall 
slide  in  due  time  ; "  Davies's  Bruised  Reed  ;  Manson's 
Gospel  to  the  Poor  ;  Hall's  Modern  Infidelity  ;  Chal 
mers's  Expulsive  Power  of  a  New  Affection ;  and 
Monod's  "  God  is  Love  ;  "  with  others,  perhaps  as 
worthy,  which  need  not  now  burden  our  pages.  It 
has  sometimes  been  made  a  question  how  far  it  is  de- 
16 


362  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

sirable  for  a  pracher  to  collect  and  study  the  written 
labours  of  others.  There  is  a  use,  or  rather  an  abuse, 
of  other  men's  compositions,  which  is  slavish  and  dis 
honourable.  "No  young  man  of  independent  mind 
and  high  principle,  will  go  to  books  for  his  sermon, 
or  for  its  method,  or  for  any  large  continuous  portion. 
There  is  a  tacit  covenant  between  preachers  and  hear 
ers,  in  our  Church  and  country,  which  makes  it  a 
deception  for  any  man  to  preach  that  which  is  not 
original.  Pulpit  larceny  is  the  most  unprofitable  of 
all  frauds  ;  it  is  almost  certain  of  detection,  and  it 
leaves  a  stigma  on  the  fame,  even  beyond  its  intrinsic 
turpitude.  But  surely,  an  honest  soul  may  wander 
among  valuables  without  any  necessity  of  thieving. 
Some  have  excluded  books  of  sermons  from  their  li 
braries,  and  by  a  "  self-denying  ordinance  "  have  ab 
stained  from  perusing  them,  lest,  forsooth,  they  should 
damage  their  own  originality.  This  is  about  as  wise 
as  if  an  artist  should  refrain  from  looking  at  the  fres 
coes  of  the  Vatican,  and  the  galleries  of  Florence, 
Dresden,  and  the  Louvre.  "We  have  seen  the  works 
of  a  "Western  painter,  who  is  said  to  have  acted  on 
such  a  maxim ;  he  would  see  no  Raffaelles  or  Yan 
Dycks,  lest  he  should  spoil  his  native  manner.  He 
has  certainly  succeeded  in  avoiding  all  that  one  be 
holds  in  these  great  masters.  But  in  all  labours,  to 
the  success  of  which,  judgment,  taste,  and  practice 


PREACHING  AND  PREACHERS.  363 

must  combine,  the  highest  capacity  of  production  is 
fostered  by  studying  the  works  of  others  ;  and  we  see 
not  why  this  is  less  true  in  homiletics  than  in  the 
arts.  If  a  man  may  not  read  good  sermons,  we  sup 
pose  he  may  not  hear  them.  The  wise  student  will, 
with  the  utmost  avidity,  both  read  and  hear  all  that 
is  accessible,  of  the  greatest  achievements  in  the  dec 
laration  of  God's  truth.  At  the  same  time,  he  will 
sit  down  to  his  labours  as  if  he  had  known  no  per 
formances  but  his  own.  lie  will  borrow  no  man's 
plan ;  he  will  shun  all  repositories  of  skeletons  and 
what  are  ironically  named  "  Preachers'  Helps ; " 
and  will  be  himself,  even  in  his  earliest  and  faintest 
efforts. 

In  any  retrospect  of  the  work  of  preaching  in 
successive  ages,  there  is  one  snare  which  the  young 
minister  of  Christ  cannot  too  solicitously  avoid ;  it  is 
that  of  looking  upon  the  utterances  of  the  pulpit  with 
a  mere  literary  eye,  as  objects  of  criticism  upon  the 
principles  of  rhetoric  and  taste.  Extensive  scriptural 
knowledge,  solid  thought,  sound  judgment,  thorough 
inward  discipline,  and  bursting  spiritual  emotions, 
will  frame  for  themselves  as  a  vehicle  such  a  discourse 
as  shall  be  truly  eloquent.  In  this  way,  and  in  this 
way  only,  does  a  discourse  on  divine  subjects  come 
to  be  subjected  to  the  rules  of  art.  But  no  rules  of 
art  can  ensure  a  sermon  which  shall  please  God  ;  and 


364:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

every  rule  of  art  may  seem  to  be  observed,  while  yet 
the  result  shall  be  as  "  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling 
cymbal."  The  best  sermons  are  not  those  which 
most  approach  to  classical  perfection.  As  preaching 
is  a  universal  function  of  the  ministry,  and  intended 
for  the  whole  race,  that  property  which  only  one 
man  in  a  million  attains  cannot  be  indispensable  to 
its  exercise ;  yet  such  a  property  is  eloquence.  If 
we  could  have  revealed  to  us  which  were  the  thou 
sand  sermons  which  had  most  honoured  Christ  and 
most  benefited  men,  we  should  perhaps  find  among 
them  not  one  of  those  which  have  been  held  up  as 
models  from  the  desk  of  professors.  "  That  is  a  good 
sermon,"  said  Matthew  Henry,  "  which  does  thee 
good."  The  greatest  effects  have  been  produced,  in 
every  age,  by  discourses  which  sinned  against  every 
precept  of  the  schools.  The  sermon  of  John  Living 
stone  at  the  Kirk  of  Shotts,  which  was  the  means  of 
awakening  not  less  than  five  hundred  persons,  was 
never  written  at  all,  and  if  we  may  judge  by  what  re 
mains  to  us  of  his  writings,  was  in  a  manner  exceeding 
ly  rude  and  homely.  Yet  it  was  kindled  by  the  fire 
of  God.  The  more  profoundly  we  are  impressed  with, 
the  utter  inefficacy  of  all  intellectual  construction  and 
oratorical  polish,  and  feel  our  absolute  dependence  on 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  preaching,  the  more  likely  shall 
we  be  to  come  before  God's  waiting  people  with  per- 


PREACHING  AND  PKEACHEKS.  365 

formances,  which,  however  defective  or  anomalous, 
as  measured  by  critical  standards,  shall  answer  the 
great  end  of  preaching,  being  carried  to  their  result 
by  the  irresistible  demonstration  and  persuasion  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 


ELOQUENCE   OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT. 

THE  age  of  Louis  XIY.  has  ever  "been,  considered 
the  most  brilliant  era  for  France.  Under  the  conduct 
of  the  most  renowned  generals,  it  attained  the  highest 
pitch  of  military  glory ;  under  the  encouragement 
given  to  philosophy,  the  most  valuable  discoveries 
were  made  in  science ;  under  the  liberal  patronage 
bestowed  upon  the  fine  arts,  taste  and  genius  achieved 
the  most  splendid  triumphs.  It  was  an  age  of  truly 
great  men — of  warriors,  politicians,  philosophers, 
poets,  historians — of  such  men  as  Conde  and  Tu- 
renne,  Corneille  and  Racine,  Descartes  and  Fonte- 
nelle,  Montesquieu  and  Malebranche,  Rochefoucauld 
and  Pascal,  Boileau.  and  Rollin,  and  hundreds  of 
others  whose  works  still  yield  improvement  and  de 
light.  It  was  a  period,  too,  when  eloquence  of  the 
highest  kind  lived  and  flourished.  Not  the  eloquence 
of  the  bar ;  for  its  celebrated  pleaders,  in  judicial 
contests,  and  the  application  of  the  law,  seldom  went 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FKENC1I  PULPIT.       367 

beyond  the  strain  of  dry  and  logical  reasoning.  Not 
the  eloquence  of  popular  assemblies  ;  for  there  were 
no  such  assemblies  there  to  nourish  the  genius  of  lib 
erty.  Nothing  of  that  kind  existed,  as  in  ancient 
Greece  and  Kome,  and  as  in  our  own  country,  where 
the  assembled  people  are  brought  under  the  influence 
of  the  art  of  speaking ;  where  the  public  affairs  are 
transacted  ;  where  those  who  compose  the  nation  and 
make  the  laws  can  be  convinced  and  persuaded  by 
direct  appeals  to  their  interests  and  passions  ;  where 
continued  struggles  for  rights  and  power  rouse  the 
genius  of  every  citizen,  force  to  exertion  every  talent, 
inspire  with  enthusiasm  every  council,  and  give  to 
orators  all  that  can  qualify  them  for  the  sublimest 
eloquence.  There  was  no  room  for  such  eloquence  in 
France  at  the  period  to  which  we  refer.  "  She  sat  as 
a  queen,  and  said,  I  shall  see  no  sorrow."  After  a 
combat  of  many  years  with  the  rest  of  Europe,  she 
beheld  provinces  conquered,  and  kings  humbled  be 
fore  her  ;  she  owned  no  superior ;  she  feared  no  rival ; 
she  saw  the  arts  and  sciences  raised  to  the  highest 
splendour,  and  the  most  refined  taste  and  erudition 
in  all  the  walks  of  polite  literature ;  she  beheld  all 
her  people  vying  with  each  other  in  the  increase  and 
enjoyment  of  national  glory — while  the  "  grand  mon- 
arque  "  sat  in  his  palace  proclaiming,  "  I  am  the  gov 
ernment."  In  such  circumstances  we  cannot  suppose 


368  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

that  that  high,  manly,  forcible  eloquence,  whica,  as 
an  instrument  of  power,  mingles  with  the  busy  scenes 
of  public  life,  could  find  an  existence.  But  all  this 
is  perfectly  consistent  with  another  kind  of  eloquence 
— the  eloquence  of  the  Pulpit.  To  be  truly  eloquent, 
the  speaker  must  feel  on  a  level  with  his  auditors — at 
times  even  exercise  a  kind  of  dominion  over  them. 
The  sacred  orator,  speaking  in  the  name  of  God,  can 
do  this  under  any  government ;  in  the  most  arbitrary 
monarchy,  he  can  display  the  same  lofty  freedom 
which  the  equality  of  citizens  gives  to  a  speaker  in  the 
active  scenes  of  a  republic.  Hence,  in  a  country 
where  no  civil  freedom  was  enjoyed,  there  was  an 
eloquence  of  the  loftiest  kind,  which  long  flourished, 
which  was  earned  to  the  greatest  height,  and  which 
is  still  the  object  of  warm  admiration. 

Some  eloquent  preachers  existed  in  France,  pre 
vious  to  the  times  of  which  we  now  speak,  but 
whatever  reputation  they  may  have  had  at  the 
time,  few  have  attained  any  celebrity.  They  were 
eclipsed  like  tapers  placed  in  the  rays  of  a  meridian 
sun. 

BOSSUET  lived  when  the  French  language  had 
reached  a  degree  of  maturity,  and  was  advancing  to 
wards  perfection.  He  first  appeared  in  Paris  in 
1659  ;  was  soon  invited  to  be  one  of  the  preachers  of 
the  court ;  for  ten  years  passed  through  a  most  bril- 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       369 

liant  career  ;  and  then  was  promoted  to  the  bishopric 
of  Condom,  and  afterwards  to  that  of  Meanx. 

He  has  been  termed  the  "  French  Demosthenes," 
and  well  does  he  deserve  the  title  ;  for  he,  of  all  his 
contemporaries,  bears  the  greatest  resemblance  to  the 
Athenian  orator.  He  was  regarded  as  the  former,  in 
Europe,  of  the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit ;  and  his  works 
were  directed  to  be  studied  as  classic  works,  as  men 
repair  to  Borne  to  improve  their  taste  by  the  master 
pieces  of  Eaphael  and  Michael  Angelo.  Time,  that 
great  destroyer  of  ill-founded  reputation,  instead  of 
impairing,  has  from  age  to  age  added  fresh  lustre  to 
his  glory. 

He  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  Fathers,  par 
ticularly  of  Chrysostom  and  Austin,  from  whom  he 
drew  profound  maxims  and  convincing  arguments ; 
and  to  the  frequent  reading  of  Demosthenes  and 
Homer,  to  imbibe  the  vehemence  of  the  one,  and  the 
imagination  of  the  other.  But  he  was  specially  sedu 
lous  in  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  From  that 
divine  book  he  drew  forth  the  richest  treasures ;  in 
this  inexhaustible  mine  he  found  the  sublimest 
thoughts,  the  strongest  expressions,  the  most  eloquent 
descriptions,  the  most  pathetic  images.  There  he 
found  history,  laws,  moral  precepts,  oratory,  and 
poetry. 

If  eloquence  consist  in  taking  strong  hold  of  a 
16* 


370  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

subject,  knowing  its  resources,  measuring  its  extent, 
and  skilfully  uniting  all  its  parts  ;  in  causing  ideas  to 
succeed  each,  other,  so  as  to  bear  us  away  with  al 
most  irresistible  force  ;  if  it  consist  in  painting  objects 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  them  life  and  animation ; 
if  it  consist  in  such  a  power  upon  the  human  mind  as 
leads  us  to  be  carried  along  with  the  speaker,  and  to 
enter  into  all  his  emotions  and  passions,  then  the 
Bishop  of  Meaux  is  eloquent.  But  let  us  not  mistake 
the  nature  of  his  eloquence.  lie  was  not  content 
wTith  gratifying  his  audience,  or  leaving  their  minds 
in  a  state  of  satisfied  tranquillity,  but  aimed  at  thor 
oughly  convincing  and  agitating  their  souls,  and 
making  such  an  impression  as  could  not  be  easily  ob 
literated.  Every  thing  is  simple  and  natural — there 
is  no  affectation  of  pomp,  no  visible  desire  to  please, 
no  disposition  to  withdraw  attention  from  the  subject 
to  the  author — all  is  related  and  described  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  conceal  all  art.  In  every  thing  there  is 
nature,  both  its  order  and  its  irregularity — sometimes 
rising  to  the  mountain-top,  and  sometimes  descend 
ing  to  the  valleys — sometimes  the  winding  and  trans 
parent  rivulet,  and  sometimes  the  mighty  cataract 
which  astonishes  and  overwhelms. 

Few  of  his  sermons  that  have  come  down  to  us 
received  his  finishing  hand.  The  greater  part  are 
sketches — full  and  perfect  as  far  as  they  go,  and  filled 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       371 

up  at  the  time  of  delivery.  They  were  such,  too,  as 
he  never  rep-eated,  after  he  left  Paris ;  for  when  he 
became  bishop,  though  he  preached  much,  yet  he 
wrote  not  his  sermons,  but  trusted  to  the  occasion  for 
language,  after  profoundly  studying  his  subject.  But 
though  they  are  the  productions  of  his  youth,  and  in 
a  state  of  comparative  imperfection,  yet  they  bear  the 
marks  of  a  mighty  genius ;  they  present  thoughts 
strong  and  original,  in  a  corresponding  style  of  energy 
and  majesty ;  they  show  the  author  powerfully  affected 
by  what  he  writes,  and  when  the  subject  requires  it, 
warmed  by  imagination,  and  heated  by  passion  ;  they 
impress  and  captivate  the  reader,  and  animate  him 
with  the  same  admiration,  love,  fear,  and  hatred  with 
which  the  orator  is  inspired. 

"We  shall  present,  in  a  free  translation,  a  few  quo 
tations  from  some  of  his  sermons,  fully  sensible  how 
much  is  lost  in  such  translation,  and  how  a  resort  to 
the  original  can  alone  discover  their  beauties. 

One  of  the  best  sermons  is  on  the  Truth  and  Per 
fection  of  the  Christian  Religion <,  from  Matt.  xi. 
5,  6. — "  Preached  before  the  king."  It  is,  through 
out,  convincing  and  eloquent.  "We  make  the  follow 
ing  extract : 

*  "  Truth  is  a  queen  who  may  be  said  to  inhabit 
her  own  excellence ;  who  reigns  invested  with  her 

*  "  La  verite  est  une  reine  qui  habite  en  elle-m£me,"  &c.,  &c. 


372  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

own  native  splendour,  and  who  is  enthroned  in  her 
own  grandeur,  and  upon  her  own  felicity.  This  queen 
condescending  to  reign  in  our  world  for  the  good  of 
man,  our  Saviour  came  down  from  above  to  establish 
her  empire  upon  earth.  Human  reason  is  not  con 
sulted  in  the  establishment  of  her  empire.  Relying 
on  herself,  on  her  celestial  origin,  on  her  infallible 
authority,  she  speaks  and  demands  belief ;  she  pub 
lishes  her  edicts,  and  exacts  submission ;  she  holds 
out  to  our  assent  the  sublime  and  incomprehensible 
union  of  the  most  blessed  Trinity ;  she  proclaims  a 
God-man,  and  shows  him  to  us  extended  on  a  cross, 
expiring  in  ignominy  and  pain,  and  calls  upon  hu 
man  reason  to  bow  down  before  this  tremendous 
mystery. 

"  The  Christian  religion,  not  resting  her  cause 
upon  the  principles  of  human  reason,  rejects  also  the 
meretricious  aid  of  human  eloquence.  It  is  true  the 
apostles,  who  were  its  preachers,  humbled  the  dignity 
of  "the  Roman  fasces,  and  laid  them  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross ;  and  in  those  very  trials  to  which  they  were 
summoned  as  criminals,  they  made  their  judges  trem 
ble.  They  conquered  idolatry,  and  presented  their 
converts  as  willing  captives  to  the  true  religion. 
But  they  accomplished  this  end,  not  by  the  artifice 
of  words,  by  the  arrangement  of  seductive  periods, 
by  the  magic  of  human  eloquence — they  effected  it 


ELOQUENCE    OF    THE    FltENCH    PULPIT.  3Y3 

by  a  sacred  persuasive  power  which  impressed — more 
than  impressed — which  captivated  the  understanding. 
This  power  being  derived  from  heaven,  preserves  its 
efficiency,  even  as  it  passes  through  the  lowly  style 
of  unadorned  composition  ;  like  a  rapid  river,  which, 
as  it  courses  through  the  plain,  retains  the  impetuos 
ity  which  it  acquired  from  the  mountain  whence  it 
sprung,  and  from  whose  lofty  source  its  waters  were 
precipitated. 

"  Let  us  then  form  this  conclusion,  that  our  Sa 
viour  has  revealed  to  us  the  light  of  the  Gospel  by 
means  worthy  of  the  Giver,  and  at  the  same  time  by 
means  the  most  consonant  with  our  nature.  Sur 
rounded  as  we  are  by  error,  and  distressed  with  un 
certainty,  we  require  not  the  aid  of  a  doubting  acad 
emician,  but  we  stand  in  absolute  need  of  a  God  to 
illuminate  our  researches.  The  path  of  reason  is  cir 
cuitous,  and  perplexed  with  thorns.  Pursuit  presup 
poses  distance,  and  argument  indecision.  As  the 
principle  of  our  conduct  is  the  object  of  this  inquiry, 
it  is  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  an  immediate  and 
immutable  belief.  The  Christian  finds  every  thing 
easy  in  his  faith  ;  for  though  the  doctrines  of  which 
Christ  proposes  to  his  acceptance  are  too  immeasur 
able  for  the  narrow  capacity  of  his  intellect,  yet  they 
may  be  embraced  by  the  expansive  submission  of  his 
belief. 


374  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

"  Let  us  dwell  on  a  theme  so  interesting ;  let  us 
direct  our  view  to  those  divine  features  which  pro 
claim  the  heavenly  origin  of  our  religion.  When  she 
first  descended  from  above,  did  she  not  come  as  an 
unwilling  visitant?  Rejection,  hatred,  and  persecu 
tion  met  her  in  every  step  ;  nevertheless  she  made  no 
appeal  to  human  justice,  no  application  to  the  secular 
power ;  she  enlisted  defenders  worthy  of  her  cause, 
who,  in  attachment  to  her  interests,  presented  them 
selves  to  the  stroke  of  the  executioner,  in  such  num 
bers  that  persecution  grew  alarmed,  the  law  blushed 
at  its  own  decree,  and  princes  were  constrained  to  re 
call  their  sanguinary  edicts.  It  was  the  destiny  of 
truth  to  erect  her  throne  in  opposition  to  the  kings 
of  the  earth.  She  called  not  for  their  assistance, 
when  she  laid  the  foundation  of  her  own  establish 
ment — but,  when  the  edifice  rose  from  its  foundation, 
and  lifted  high  its  impregnable  towers,  she  then 
adopted  the  great  for  her  children ;  not  that  she 
stood  in  need  of  their  concurrence,  but  in  order  to 
cast  an  additional  lustre  on  their  authority,  and  to 
dignify  their  power.  At  the  same  time,  our  holy 
religion  maintained  its  independence  ;  for  when  sov 
ereigns  are  said  to  protect  religion,  it  is  rather  re- 
Jigion  that  protects  them,  and  is  the  firmest  support 
of  their  thrones.  I  appeal  for  the  ascertainment  of 
this  fact  to  the  history  of  the  church.  The  world 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       375 

threatened,  but  the  Christian  religion  continued 
firm  ;  error  polluted  the  stream,  but  the  spring  re 
tained  its  purity ;  schism  wounded  the  holy  form  of 
the  church,  but  the  truth  remained  inviolable  ;  many 
were  seduced,  the  weak  overcome,  the  strong  shaken, 
but  the  pillar  of  the  sacred  edifice  stood  immovable. 

" — You  that  think  yourselves  endowed  with  a 
sagacity  to  pervade  the  secrets  of  God,  approach,  and 
unfold  to  us  the  mysteries  of  nature — the  whole  crea 
tion  is  spread  out  before  you.  Choose  your  theme — 
unravel  what  is  at  a  distance,  or  develope  what  is 
near  ;  explain  what  is  beneath  your  feet ;  or  illustrate 
the  wonderful  luminary  which  glitters  over  your 
head.  What !  does  your  reasoning  faculty  stagger 
on  the  very  threshoM  ?  Poor,  presumptuous,  erring 
traveller,  do  you  expect  that  an  unclouded  beam  of 
truth  is  to  illuminate  your  path  ?  Ah  !  be  no  more 
deceived.  Advert  to  the  dark,  tempestuous  atmos 
phere,  which  is  diffused  over  that  country  through 
which  we  are  travelling  ;  advert  to  the  imbecility  of 
our  reasoning  powers  ;  and  until  the  Omniscient  God 
shall  remove  the  obscuring  veil  that  hangs  between 
heaven  and  earth,  let  us  not  reject  the  solitary  aid 
and  soothing  intervention  of  a  simple  faith." 

In  the  sermon  on  the  Crucifixion,  from  Gal.  vi. 
14,  the  influence  of  Christianity  in  destroying  idolatry 
is  strikingly  exhibited : 


376  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

*  "  Religious  truth  was  exiled  from  the  earth, 
and  idolatry  sat  brooding  over  the  moral  world.  The 
Egyptians,  the  fathers  of  philosophy,  the  Grecians, 
the  inventors  of  the  fine  arts,  the  Romans,  the  con 
querors  of  the  universe,  were  all  unfortunately  cele 
brated  for  perversion  of  religious  worship,  or  gross 
errors,  which  they  admitted  into  their  belief,  and  the 
indignities  which  they  offered  to  the  true  religion. 
Minerals,  vegetables,  animals,  and  elements,  became 
objects  of  adoration ;  even  abstract  visionary  forms, 
such  as  fevers  and  distempers,  received  the  honours  of 
deification ;  and  to  the  most  infamous  vices  and  dis 
solute  passions  altars  were  erected.  The  world  which 
God  made  to  manifest  his  power,  seemed  to  have  be 
come  a  temple  of  idols,  where  «very  thing  was  God 
but  God  himself.  The  mystery  of  the  Saviour's  cru 
cifixion  was  the  remedy  which  the  Almighty  ordained 
for  this  universal  idolatry.  He  knew  the  mind  of 
man  ;  and  he  knew  that  it  was  not  by  reasoning  that 
an  error  could  be  destroyed,  which  reasoning  had  not 
established.  Idolatry  prevailed  by  the  suppression 
of  the  rational  faculty ;  by  suffering  the  senses  to 
predominate,  which  are  apt  to  clothe  every  thing 
with  qualities  with  which  they  are  affected.  Men 
gave  the  Divinity  their  own  figure,  and  attributed  to 
him  their  vices  and  passions.  It  was  a  subversion 

*  La  verite  religieuse  etoit  exile  sur  la  terre,  &c. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FKENCH  PULPIT.       377 

of  reason,  a  delirium,  a  frenzy.  Argue  with  a  man 
who  is  insane — you  do  but  the  more  provoke  him, 
and  render  the  distemper  incurable.  Neither  will 
such  argumentation  cure  the  delirium  of  idolatry. 
What  has  learned  antiquity  gained  by  her  elaborate 
discourses — her  disputations  so  artfully  framed  ?  Did 
Plato,  with  that  eloquence  which  was  styled  divine, 
overthrow  one  single  altar,  where  those  monstrous 
divinities  were  worshipped  ?  Experience  has  shown 
that  the  overthrow  of  idolatry  could  not  be  the  work 
of  reason  alone.  Far  from  commissioning  human 
wisdom  to  cure  such  a  malady,  God  completed  its 
confusion  by  the  mystery  of  the  cross.  When  that 
was  raised,  and  displayed  to  the  world  an  agonized 
Redeemer,  incredulity  exclaimed,  it  was  foolishness — 
but  the  darkened  sun — nature  convulsed — the  dead 
arising  from  their  graves,  said,  it  was  wisdom." 

Many  fine  thoughts  are  found  in  the  sermon  on 
the  Name  of  Jesus  ^  from  Matt.  i.  21. 

*:f  "I  cannot  observe  without  an  emotion  of  aston 
ishment  the  conduct  of  the  Son  of  God.  I  observe 
him  through  the  course  of  his  ministry  displaying, 
even  with  magnificence,  the  lowliness  of  his  con 
dition,  and  when  the  hour  approaches  which  is  to 
terminate  in  his  death,  the  word  glory  dwells  on  his 

*  Certes  je  ne  puis  voir  sans  etonnement  dans  les  Ecritures  Di 
vines,  &c. 


378  THOUGHTS   ON   PKEACHING. 

lips,  and  lie  discourses  with  his  disciples  of  nothing 
but  his  greatness.  On  the  eve  of  his  ignominious 
death,  when  the  traitor  had  just  gone  from  him,  big 
with  his  execrable  intention,  it  was  then  that  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  cried  out,  with  a  divine  ardour 
— '  Now  is  the  Son  of  man  glorified.'  Tell  me  in 
what  manner  he  is  going  to  be  glorified?  "What 
means  the  emphatic  word — now  f  Is  he  at  once  to 
rise  above  the  clouds,  and  thence  to  advance  ven 
geance  on  his  foes  ?  Or  is  the  angelic  hierarchy,  ser 
aphs,  dominions,  principalities,  and  powers,  to  de 
scend  from  on  high,  and  pay  him  instant  adoration  ? 
No  !  he  is  going  to  be  degraded  ;  to  submit  to  excru 
ciating  pain ;  to  expire  with  malefactors.  This  is 
what  he  denominates  his  glory  •  this  is  what  he  es 
teems  his  triumph  !  Behold  his  entrance  into  Jeru 
salem,  c  riding  on  an  ass.'  Ah !  Christians,  let  us 
not  be  ashamed  of  our  Heavenly  King — let  the  scep 
tic  deride,  if  he  please,  this  humble  appearance  of 
the  Son  of  God  ;  but  I  will  tell  human  arrogance  that 
this  lowly  exhibition  was  worthy  of  the  king  who  came 
into  this  world,  in  order  to  degrade  and  crush  beneath 
his  feet  all  terrestrial  grandeur.  Behold  what  a  con 
course  of  people,  of  all  ages  and  of  all  conditions,  pre 
cede  him,  with  branches  of  palm  trees,  in  the  act  of 
exultation — how  the  air  resounds  with  the  acclama 
tions  :  '  Hosannah  to  the  Son  of  David — blessed  is  he 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       379 

that  cometli  in  tlie  name  of  the  Lord.'  Whence  this 
sudden  change,  so  opposite  to  his  former  conduct  ? 
Whence  is  it  that  lie  now  courts  applause,  whom  we 
see  in  another  part  of  the  gospel,  retiring  to  the  sum 
mit  of  a  solitary  mountain  to  escape  the  solicitations 
of  the  multitudes  assembled  from  the  neighbouring 
cities  and  villages  for  the  purpose  of  electing  him 
their  king  ?  He  now  listens  with  complacency  to  the 
people  who  accost  him  with  that  title.  The  jealous 
Pharisees  endeavour  to  impose  silence ;  but  the  Sa 
viour  cries,  i  If  these  should  hold  their  peace,  the 
stones  would  immediately  cry  out.'  I  ask  again, 
whence  is  this  abrupt  change  ?  why  does  he  approve 
of  what  he  lately  abhorred,  and  accept  of  what  he 
lately  rejected  ?  Entering  Jerusalem  now  for  the 
last  time,  it  is  in  order  to  die  ;  and  agreeably  to  his 
sentiments,  to  die  is  to  reign  ;  to  die,  in  his  estima 
tion,  is  to  be  '  glorified.'  How  dignified  was  his  con 
duct  through  the  whole  process  of  his  passion  !  How 
dignified  his  deportment  at  the  tribunal  of  Pilate ! 
The  Roman  President  asked,  i  Art  thou  a  king  ? ' 
The  Son  of  God,  who  had  until  that  time  been  silent, 
no  sooner  heard  his  title  to  royalty  mentioned,  than 
he  abruptly  replied,  6  Thou  sayest  that  I  am  a  king ; 
to  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into 
the  world.'  Yes  !  gracious  Saviour,  I  comprehend 
thee — it  is  thy  glory  to  suffer  for  the  love  of  thy  peo- 


380  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

pie  ;  and  thou  wilt  not  claim  the  sceptre,  until,  by  a 
victorious  death,  thou  deliverest  thy  subjects  from 
eternal  slavery ! 

"  Let  heaven  and  earth  burst  forth  into  a  song  of 
praise,  for  Jesus  Christ  is  a  King.  To  those  who 
have  been  regained  and  subdued  to  his  protection  at 
so  high  a  price,  he  is  a  most  liberal  monarch — through 
him  they  not  only  live,  but  have  the  hope  of  reigning 
themselves — for  such  is  the  munificence  of  our  celes 
tial  King,  that  in  every  court,  every  brow  is  to  be 
encircled  with  a  diadem.  Listen  to  the  beautiful 
hymn  of  the  twenty-four  elders — representing  most 
probably  the  assemblage  of  the  faithful,  under  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testament — the  one  half  represent 
ing  the  twelve  patriarchs  of  the  Jewish  church — the 
other  half,  the  twelve  apostles  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Observe  that  the  elders  are  crowned,  that  they  fall 
prostrate  in  humble  adoration  before  the  Lamb,  sing 
ing,  '  Thou  hast  made  us  kings.'  Let  me  ask  if  hu 
man  grandeur  dare  for  a  moment  to  enter  into  com 
petition  with  this  celestial  court  ?  Cyneas,  the  am 
bassador  of  Pyrrlms,  in  speaking  of  ancient  Koine, 
said  that  he  beheld  in  that  imperial  city  as  many 
kings  as  senators.  But  our  God  calls  us  to  a  more 
resplendent  exhibition ;  in  this  court,  this  nation  of 
elected  kings,  this  triumphal  city  whose  walls  are 
cemented  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  I  not  only  affirm 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       381 

that  we  shall  behold  as  many  kings  as  senators,  but 
I  assert  that  there  will  be  as  many  kings  as  inhabit 
ants.  The  King  of  the  world  admits  to  the  participa 
tion  of  his  throne  all  the  people  whom  he  has  redeemed 
by  his  blood  and  subdued  by  his  grace." 

There  are  some  similar  thoughts  in  his  second  ser 
mon  "  pour  le  premier  dimanche  de  1'avenf;  " — in 
which  there  is  a  beautiful  contrast  between  Jesus 
Christ  and  Alexander — presented  with  great  sim 
plicity,  by  an  allusion  to  authentic  history.  . 

*  "  Hear  how  the  author  of  the  first  book  of 
Maccabees  speaks  of  the  great  king  of  Macedonia, 
whose  name  seemed  to  breathe  nothing  but  victory 
and  triumph.  <  It  happened  that  Alexander,  son  of 
Philip,  reigned  over  Greece,  and  made  many  wars, 
and  won  many  strongholds,  and  slew  the  kings  of  the 
earth,  and  went  to  the  ends  of  the  world,  and  took 
spoils  of  many  nations,  insomuch  that  the  earth  was 
quiet  before  him.'  "What  a  grand  and  magnificent 
beginning  ! — but  hear  the  conclusion.  '  After  these 
things  he  fell  sick,  and  perceived  that  he  must  die  ; 
wherefore  he  called  his  servants,  and  parted  his  king 
dom  among  them.  So  Alexander  reigned  twelve 
years,  and  he  died.'  To  this  fate  is  suddenly  reduced 
all  his  glory  ;  in  this  manner  the  history  of  Alexan 
der  the  Great  terminates.  How  different  the  history 

*  "Ecoutez  commc  parle  1'Histoire,"  &c.,  &c. 


382  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

of  Jesus  Christ !  It  does  not  indeed  commence  in  a 
manner  so  pompous — neither  does  it  end  in  a  way  so 
ruinous.  It  begins  by  showing  him  to  us  in  the  sor 
did  manger — then  leads  him  through  various  stages 
of  humiliation — then  conducts  him  to  the  infamy  of 
the  cross — and  at  length  envelopes  him  in  the  dark 
ness  of  the  tomb — confessedly  the  very  lowest  degree 
of  depression.  But  this,  instead  of  being  the  period 
of  his  final  abasement,  is  that  from  which  he  recovers, 
and  is  exalted.  He  rises — ascends — takes  possession 
of  his  throne — is  extending  his  glory  to  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  universe,  and  will  one  day  come  with 
great  power  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead." 

In  his  addresses  to  the  king,  there  is  a  noble  and 
manly  freedom  which  we  cannot  but  admire — an 
apostolic  fidelity  which  shows  a  marked  dislike  and 
careful  avoidance  of  adulation.  The  following  is  a 
specimen : 

*  "  While  your  majesty  looks  down  from  that 
eminence  to  which  Providence  has  raised  you  ;  while 
you  behold  your  flourishing  provinces  reaping  the 
harvest  of  happiness,  and  enjoying  the  blessings  of 
peace ;  while  you  behold  your  throne  encompassed 
with  the  affections  of  a  loyal  people,  what  have  you 
to  fear  ?  Where  is  the  enemy  that  can  injure  your 

*  "Pendant  que  votre  majeste  regarde  en  bas  de  cette  eleva 
tion,"  &c.,  &c. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       383 

happiness  ?  Yes !  sire,  there  is  an.  enemy  that  can 
injure  you — that  enemy  is  yourself — that  enemy  is 
the  glory  that  encircles  you.  It  is  no  easy  task  to 
submit  to  the  rule  that  seems  to  submit  to  us. 
Where  is  the  canopy  of  sufficient  texture  to  screen 
you  from  the  penetrating  and  searching  beams  of  un 
bounded  prosperity  ?  Let  me  entreat  you  to  descend 
in  spirit  from  your  exalted  situation,  and  visit  the 
tomb  of  Jesus ;  there  you  may  meditate  on  loftier 
subjects  than  this  world  with  all  its  pomp  can  offer  ; 
there  you  may  learn  that  by  our  Redeemer's  resur 
rection  from  the  grave,  you  may  be  entitled  to  a 
crown  of  immortal  glory. 

"  What  will  it  avail  you,  sire,  to  have  lifted  so 
high  the  glory  of  your  country,  unless  you  direct  your 
mind  to  works  which  are  of  estimation  in  the  sight 
of  God,  and  which  are  to  be  recorded  in  the  book  of 
life  ?  Consider  the  terrors  which  are  to  usher  in  the 
last  day,  when  the  Saviour  of  the  world  will  appear 
in  tremendous  majesty,  and  send  judgment  unto  vic 
tory.  Reflect  if  the  stars  are  then  doomed  to  fall,  if 
the  glorious  canopy  of  the  heavens  is  to  be  rolled  to 
gether  as  a  scroll,  how  will  those  works  endure,  which 
are  constructed  by  man  ?  Can  you,  sire,  affix  any 
real  grandeur  to  what  must  one  day  be  blended  in 
the  dust  ?  Elevate  then  your  mind,  and  fill  the  page 
of  vour  life  with  other  records  and  other  annals." 


384:  THOUGHTS    OX    PKEACHING. 

"We  have  often  been  struck  with  the  manner  in 
which  truth  is  pressed  upon  the  conscience,  and  the  sin 
ner  urged  to  immediate  repentance.  The  following 
is  a  single  instance  from  many  that  might  be  pre 
sented  : 

*  "  When  God  transported  the  prophetic  spirit  of 
Ezekiel  into  the  valley  of  bones,  he  heard  a  voice  cry 
out,  c  Can  these  dry  bones  live  ?  Say  unto  them, 
Oh  !  ye  dry  bones,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.'  The 
application  is  obvious ;  bring  it  home  to  your  own 
bosoms ;  enforce  it  on  your  own  situation.  Let  no 
time  be  lost ;  defer  not  to  a  distant  period  your  re 
pentance  ;  the  voice  that  now  whispers  to  your  soul, 
6  Oh  !  ye  dry  bones,  hear  the  voice  of  the  Lord,'  will 
perhaps  never  invite  you  more.  The  season  of  age 
and  weakness  will  betray  you  ;  when  you  are  arrived 
within  a  few  steps  of  the  grave,  you  will  find  neither 
time,  nor  disposition,  nor  capacity  to  perform  the 
solemn  task  which  you  have  so  long  delayed — your 
soul  will  be  encumbered  with  a  train  of  confused, 
turbid,  comfortless  thoughts  ;  (I  have  unhappily  often 
witnessed  such  scenes,) — your  cold  lips  will  utter  a 
few  imperfect  prayers  that  will  not  reach  the  heart 
any  more  than  water  gliding  over  a  marble  surface 
will  penetrate  the  substance.  Seize  then  the  present 
hour — the  offered  moment.  "Why  will  you  perish? 

*  Quanrt  Picu  transportoit  1'esprit  prophetique,  &c. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       385 

You,  my  brethren,  who  have  been  distinguished  by 
so  many  blessings  to  whom,  in  your  earlier  years,  the 
immaculate  page  of  Christianity  was  unfolded  ;  who 
were  reared  in  the  hallowed  bosom  of  religion,  why 
will  ye  perish  ?  You  for  whom  this  roof  resounds 
with  the  voice  of  the  preacher,  for  whom  that  table  is 
spread  with  celestial  food,  why  will  you  perish  ?  You 
for  whom  Jesus  died,  for  whom  he  rose  from  the 
dead — and  now,  willing  your  salvation,  shows  to  his 
Father  the  sacred  wounds  he  suffered,  why  will  you 
perish  ? 

"The  best  method  to  raise  our  thoughts  above 
this  speck  of  earth,  is  first  to  contemplate  the  deceit 
ful  and  fugitive  tenure  of  terrestrial  existence.  May 
we  not  compare  human  life  to  a  road  that  terminates 
in  a  ruinous  precipice?  "We  are  informed  of  the 
dangers  we  incur,  but  the  imperial  command  is  an 
nounced,  and  we  must  advance.  I  wrould  wish  to 
turn  back,  in  order  to  avoid  the  ruinous  precipice, 
but  the  tyrant  necessity  exclaims, i  advance,  advance.' 
An  irresistible  power  seems  to  carry  me  along.  Many 
inconveniences — many  hardships — many  untoward 
accidents  occur  ;  but  they  would  appear  trivial,  could 
I  withhold  my  steps  from  the  ruinous  precipice.  jSTo  ! 
no  !  An  irresistible  power  urges  me  to  proceed,  and 
even  impels  me  to  run — such  is  the  rapidity  of  time. 
Some  pleasant  circumstances,  however,  present  them- 
17 


386  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

selves ;  we  meet  with  objects  in  the  course  of  our 
journey,  which  attract  attention — limpid  streams — 
groves  resounding  with  harmony — trees  loaded  with 
delicious  fruit — flowers  exhaling  their  aromatic  odour 
into  the  passing  gale.  Here  we  would  be  glad  to 
wander,  and  suspend  the  progress  of  our  journey ; 
but  the  voice  exclaims,  i  advance,  advance,' — while  all 
the  objects  we  have  passed  suddenly  vanish,  like  the 
materials  of  a  turbid  dream.  Some  wretched  conso 
lation  still  remains — you  have  gathered  some  flowers 
as  you  have  passed  by,  which,  however,  wither  in  the 
hand  that  grasps  them — you  have  plucked  some  fruit, 
which,  however,  decays  before  it  reaches  the  lips. 
This,  this  is  the  enchantment  of  delusion.  In.  the 
progress  of  your  destined  course,  you  now  approach 
the  tremendous  gulf  which  breathes  forth  a  solemn 
vapour  that  discolours  every  object.  Behold  the 
shadowy  form  of  Death  rising  from  the  jaws  of  the 
fatal  gulf,  to  hail  your  arrival.  Your  heart  palpi 
tates — your  eyes  grow  dim — your  cheeks  turn  pale — 
your  lips  quiver — the  final  step  is  taken — and  the 
hideous  chasm  swallows  up  your  trembling  frame." 

We  make  but  one  more  quotation  from  his  ser 
mons,  from  a  discourse  on  the  Sufferings  of  the  Soul 
of  Jesus,  founded  on  Isaiah  liii.  6.  And  we  do  it 
the  more  cheerfully,  as  his  sentiments  on  the  doc 
trine  of  the  Atonement  are  so  correct  and  scriptural. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FKENCH  PULPIT.        387 

*  "  Tlie  most  soothing  consolation  to  tlio  man 
plunged  in  affliction,  is  the  consciousness  of  his  free 
dom  from  guilt,  which,  like  an  angel,  watches  at  his 
side,  and  whispers  comfort  to  his  soul.  The  holy 
confidence  arising  from  this  source  supported  the 
martyrs,  and  upheld  their  enduring  patience  under 
the  pressure  of  the  severest  tortures.  This  consola 
tion  acted  with  a  magical  influence  ;  it  calmed  their 
sufferings  ;  it  lulled  the  exquisite  sensation  of  the 
flames  which  consumed  their  bodies,  and  diffused 
over  their  countenance  the  expression  of  a  celestial 
joy.  But  Jesus,  the  personally  innocent  Jesus,  found 
no  such  consolation  in  his  sufferings  ;  what  was  given 
to  the  martyrs  was  denied  to  the  King  of  martyrs. 
Under  the  ignominy  of  a  most  disgraceful  death, 
under  the  impression  of  the  most  agonizing  torments, 
he  was  not  allowed  to  complain,  nor  even  to  think 
that  he  was  treated  with  injustice.  It  is  true  he  was 
personally  innocent ;  but  what  did  the  recollection  of 
an  immaculate  life  avail  him  ?  His  Heavenly  Father, 
from  whom  alone  he  looked  for  consolation,  who  from 
eternity  had  shed  upon  his  beloved  Son  the  effulgence 
of  his  glory,  now  withdraws  his  sacred  beams,  and 
spreads  over  his  head  an  angry  cloud.  Behold  the 
innocent  Jesus,  the  spotless  Lamb,  suddenly  become 
the  goat  of  abomination,  burdened  with  the  sins  of 

*  La  consolation  la  plus  douce  pour  un  homme  qui  souffert,  &c. 


388  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

men.  It  is  no  longer  the  Jesus  who  once  said, '  "Which 
of  you  convinceth  me  of  sin  ? '  (John  viii.  46,) — he 
presumes  to  speak  no  more  of  his  innocence.  Oh ! 
Jesus,  I  view  thee  bending  beneath  the  weight  of 
human  guilt.  See,  my  brethren,  see  imputed  to  him 
the  sins  of  men  ;  see  the  turbulent  ocean  of  iniquity 
ready  to  engulf  him :  wherever  he  casts  his  eye,  he 
beholds  torrents  of  sin  bursting  upon  him.  By  a 
wonderful  commutation  which  comprises  the  mystery 
of  our  salvaion,  one  is  smitten  and  others  are  de 
livered.  God  smites  his  innocent  Son  for  the  sake  of 
guilty  men  ;  and  pardons  guilty  men  for  the  sake  of 
his  innocent  Son.  How  inadequate  is  all  language 
to  express  such  mercy !  Let  this  sanctuary  be  to 
every  one  of  us  a  Calvary,  and  let  us  not  depart 
hence,  before  we  have  kindled  in  our  bosoms  the 
flame  of  eternal  gratitude  for  the  sublime  act  of  love 
which  is  this  day  recorded  through  the  Christian 
world." 

But  it  is  in  his  Funeral  Orations  that  the  elo 
quence  of  Bossuet  is  specially  seen.  These  were  pre 
pared  in  mature  life  when  his  taste  was  chastened, 
received  all  the  correction  which  his  hand  could  give 
them,  and  by  universal  consent  are  the  enduring 
memorials  of  the  loftiest  genius.  They  are  not  only 
uncommonly  spirited,  and  animated  with  the  boldest 
figures,  but  frequently  rise  to  a  degree  of  the  sublime. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       389 

While  celebrating  the  illustrious  dead,  he  employs 
them  as  preachers  to  the  living  ;  while  sitting 
on  the  tombs  of  kings  and  princes,  he  crushes  the 
pride  of  all  kings,  levels  them  with  the  meanest  of 
their  subjects,  and  confounds  them  in  the  common 
dust. 

His  success  is  this  species  of  eloquence  is  seen  in 
his  Funeral  Oration  for  Henrietta }  Queen  of  Eng 
land,  wife  of  diaries  I.  It  was  a  subject  worthy 
of  the  great  talents  of  Bossuet ;  a  subject  most  dra 
matic  and  eventful — a  rebellion  crowned  with  victory 
— a  fugitive  queen — a  monarch  bleeding  on  the  scaf 
fold — all  furnishing  important  materials  for  such  a 
discourse,  and  employed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  bear 
the  impress  of  the  highest  eloquence.  While  he 
paints  in  vivid  colours  the  civil  commotions,  he  shows 
us  God  in  them  all,  "  setting  up  one  and  putting 
down  another,"  destroying  thrones,  precipitating  rev 
olutions,  subduing  opposition  :  and  while  thus  direct 
ing  our  attention  to  a  superintending  Providence,  he 
casts  a  religious  awe  through  the  whole  scene,  which 
renders  it  really  pathetic,  and  truly  grand. 

In  adverting  to  the  dignified  manliness  which  ac 
companied  Charles  I.  in  the  last  scenes  of  his  life,  the 
orator  says  : 

*  "  Pursued  by  the  unrelenting  malignity  of  for- 

•    *  Poursuivi  &  toutc  entrance  par  1'implacable  malignitc,  &c.,  &c. 


390  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

tune,  abandoned,  betrayed,  defeated,  he  never  aban 
doned  himself.  His  mind  rose  superior  to  the  victo 
rious  standard  of  the  enemy.  Humane  and  magnani 
mous  in  the  moment  of  victory,  he  was  great  and 
dignified  in  the  hour  of  adversity.  This  is  the  image 
which  presents  itself  to  my  view  in  his  last  trial.  Oh  ! 
tliou  august  and  unfortunate  queen  !  I  know  that  I 
gratify  thy  tender  affection,  while  I  consecrate  these 
few  words  to  his  memory — that  heart  which  never 
lived  but  for  him,  awakens  even  under  the  pall  of 
death,  and  resumes  its  palpitating  sensibility  at  the 
name  of  so  endeared  a  husband." 

Instead  of  directly  saying  that  Charles  died  on 
the  scaffold,  he  represents  the  queen  as  adopting  the 
words  of  Jeremiah,  who  alone  is  capable  of  lamenta 
tions  equal  to  his  sorrows. 

*  "  Oh  !  Lord,  behold  my  afflictions,  for  the  enemy 
hath  magnified  himself:  the  adversary  hath  spread 
out  his  hand  upon  all  my  pleasant  things  ;  my  chil 
dren  are  desolate,  because  the  enemy  prevailed.  The 
kingdom  is  polluted,  and  the  princes  thereof.  For 
these  things  I  weep  ;  mine  eye  runneth  down  with 
water,  because  the  comforter  that  should  relieve  my 
soul  is  far  from  me."  (Lam.  i.  9.  16.) 

In  this  manner  he  speaks  of  the  queen's  escape 
from  her  enemies  in  England  : 

*  Jeremie  lui-meme,  qui  seul,  &c.,  &c 


ELOQUENCE    OF   TIIK    FJKENCII    PDLPIT.  391 

*  "  The  queen  was  at  length  obliged  to  leave  her 
kingdom.  She  sailed  out  of  the  English  ports  in 
sight  of  the  rebellious  navy ;  it  approached  so  near 
to  her,  in  pursuit,  that  she  almost  heard  their  profane 
cries  and  insolent  threats.  Ah!  how  different  was 
this  voyage  from  that  which  she  made  on  the  same 
sea,  when,  going  to  take  possession  of  the  sceptre  of 
Great  Britain,  she  saw  the  billows  smooth  themselves 
under  her,  to  pay  homage  to  the  queen  of  the  seas. 
Now  pursued  by  implacable  enemies  who  falsely  ac 
cused  and  endeavoured  to  destroy  her — sometimes 
just  escaped,  and  sometimes  just  taken — her  fortune 
changing  every  hour — having  no  other  aid  but  the 
Almighty  and  her  invincible  courage — no  winds  nor 
sails  to  favour  her  precipitate  flight ;  but  God  pre 
served  her  and  permitted  her  to  live." 

The  Oration  for  Henrietta,  Princess  of  England, 
and  daughter  of  Charles  L,  has  not  events  so  grand 
and  striking ;  and  presents  not  a  picture  so  vast  and 
magnificent— but  it  exhibits  a  pathos,  though  more 
soft,  yet  equally  touching.  Bossnet  was  evidently 
much  affected  when  he  composed  this  discourse  and 
deeply  moved  when  he  delivered  it.  The  fate  of  a 
young  princess,  the  daughter,  sister,  and  sister-in-law 
of  a  king,  enjoying  all  the  advantages  of  grandeur 
and  beauty — dying  suddenly  at  the  age  of  twenty-six, 

*  La  reine  fut  obligee  &  se  retirer  de  son  royaumc,  &c. 


392  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

of  a  frightful  accident,  with  all  the  marks  of  poison, 
was  an  event  calculated  to  excite  the  tenderest  com 
miseration,  and  to  make  an  impression  that  would 
settle  on  the  heart.  The  Christian  orator,  tenderly 
affected  by  the  greatness  of  the  calamity,  and  the 
painful  circumstances  connected  with  it,  declares  that 
"  in  one  single  woe  he  will  deplore  all  human  calam 
ities,  and  in  one  single  death,  show  the  death  and 
emptiness  of  all  human  grandeur."  He  has  done  it — 
he  exhibits  the  earth  under  the  image  of  a  universal 
wreck — shows  us  man  continually  striving  for  eleva 
tion,  and  the  divine  power  hurling  him  from  the 
eminence.  From  the  experience  of  her  whom  he  de 
plores  and  celebrates,  he  vividly  delineates  the  uncer 
tainty  of  life,  the  frailty  of  youth,  the  evanescence  of 
beauty,  the  emptiness  of  royalty,  and  the  utter  noth 
ingness  of  all  worldly  greatness ;  while  sketching 
these  pensive  scenes,  he  continually  returns  to  the 
princess,  and  shows  us  what  she  once  was,  and  what 
she  now  is. 

He  describes  the  manner  in  which  she  was  al 
most  miraculously  delivered  out  of  the  hands  of  her 
enemies. 

*  "  In  spite  of  the  storms  of  the  ocean,  and  the 
more  violent  commotions  of  the  earth,  God,  taking 

*  Malgre  les  tempetes  de  1'ocean,  et  Ics  agitations  encore  plus  vio- 
lentes  de  la  terre,  &c.,  &c. 


ELOQUENCE    OF   THE   FliENCII    PULPIT.  393 

her  on  his  wings,  as  the  eagle  does  her  young,  carries 
her  into  that  kingdom ;  places  her  in  the  bosom  of 
the  queen,  her  mother,  or  rather  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Christian  church." 

IIow  terrible  must  have  been  the  impression,  when 
he  spoke  of  her  death  ;  when  after  a  sentence  unusually 
calm,  he  suddenly  cried  out : 

'"  "  Oh  !  ever  memorable,  disastrous,  terrific  night ! 
when  consternation  reigned  throughout  the  palace ; 
when,  like  a  burst  of  thunder,  a  despairing  voice  cried 
out,  '  The  princess  is  dying — the  princess  is  dead  !  ' 

.  At  this  sentence,  the  orator  was  obliged  to  stop — 
the  audience  burst  into  sobs,  and  the  preacher  was 
interrupted  by  weeping. 

Some  moments  after,  having  spoken  of  the  great 
ness  of  her  soul,  and  the  nature  and  extent  of  her  vir 
tues,  he  suddenly  stops,  and  pointing  to  the  tomb  in 
which  she  is  inclosed,  exclaims  : 

f  "  There  she  lies  as  death  presents  her  to  our 
view  ;  yet  even  these  mournful  honours  with  which 
she  is  now  encircled  will  soon  disappear  ;  she  will  be 
despoiled  of  this  melancholy  decoration,  and  be  con 
veyed  into  the  dark  receptacle,  the  last  gloomy  habi 
tation,  to  sleep  in  the  dust  with  annihilated  kings, 
among  whom  it  will  be  difficult  to  place  her,  so 

*  0 !  nuit  dcsastreuse,  0 !  nuit  effroyable,  &c.,  &c. 
f  La  voila  que  la  mort  1'a  faite,  Sec.,  &c. 

17* 


394:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

closely  do  the  ranks  press  upon  eacli  other — so 
prompt  is  death  in  crowding  this  gloomy  vault  with 
departed  greatness.  Yet  even  here  our  imagination 
deludes  us  ;  for  this  form,  destitute  of  life,  which  still 
retains  the  human  resemblance,  the  faint  similitude 
which  still  lingers  in  the  countenance,  must  undergo 
a  change,  and  be  turned  into  a  terrific  something,  for 
which  no  language  has  a  name  ;  so  true  is  it  that 
every  thing  dies  that  belongs  to  man,  even  those 
funeral  expressions  that  designate  his  remains." 

The  following  is  the  conclusion  : 

*  "  Should  we  wait  until  the  dead  arise  before  we 
open  our  minds  to  religion  *  instruction  !  What  this 
day  descends  into  the  grave  should  be  sufficient  to 
awaken  and  convert  us.  Could  the  divine  providence 
bring  nearer  to  our  view,  or  more  forcible  display  the 
vanity  and  emptiness  of  human  greatness  ? 

f  "  I  entreat  you  to  begin  from  this  hour  to  de 
spise  the  smiles  of  fortune,  and  the  favours  of  this 
transient  world.  And  when  you  shall  enter  those 
august  habitations — those  sumptuous  palaces,  which 
receive  an  additional  lustre  from  the  person  we  now 
lament — when  you  shall  cast  your  eyes  around  those 
splendid  apartments,  and  find  their  better  ornament 
wanting,  then  remember  that  the  exalted  station  she 

*  Attcndons-nous  que  Dieu  ressuscite  des  morts,  &c.,  &c. 
f  Commeucez  aujourd'  hui  &  mepriser,  &c.,  <fcc. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FKENCH  PULPIT.       395 

held,  that  the  accomplishments  and  attractions  she  was 
known  to  possess,  augmented  the  dangers  to  which  she 
was  exposed  in  this  world,  and  now  form  the  subject 
of  a  righteous  investigation  in  the  world  to  come." 

We  pass  over  several  of  his  other  orations  to  the 
one  which  we  have  always  regarded  as  his  best — that 
on  the  Prince  of  Conde.  If  ever  an  orator  entered 
into  his  subject  with  the  highest  enthusiasm,  and  im 
parted  it  to  his  hearers  with  elevated  passion,  it  was 
Bossuet  on  this  occasion.  He  thoroughly  compre 
hends  the  character  and  acts  of  him  whom  he  cele 
brates  ;  collects  and  combines  in  a  manner  the  most 
admirable  all  the  particulars  which  relate  to  his  birth, 
his  life,  his  death,  his  private  character,  and  public 
career.  While  thus  happy  in  his  arrangement,  in 
description  he  has  all  the  impetuosity  of  his  hero,  and 
details  events  with  the  rapidity  and  force  with  which 
his  warrior  gained  battles.  He  seems  to  have  at  his 
command  all  incidents,  present,  past,  and  future — he 
vividly  paints,  and  skilfully  unites  them — he  collects 
together,  and  presses  upon  the  imagination  a  multi 
tude  of  objects  the  most  grand  and  startling — and 
hurries  us  forward  with  such  precipitation  that  we 
become  almost  breathless  ;  all  preparing  us  for  the 
following  conclusion. 

*  "  Draw  near  to  this  mournful  solemnity,  people 

*  Venez,  peuple,  venez  maintenant,  &c.,  &c. 


396  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

of  every  rank  and  profession — draw  near,  ye  great, 
ye  humble,  ye  rich,  ye  poor,  and  chiefly  ye,  Oh ! 
illustrious  progeny  of  the  house  of  Bourbon,  draw 
near,  and  behold  all  that  remains  of  a  birth  so  ex 
alted,  of  a  renown  so  extensive,  of  a  glory  so  brilliant. 
See  all  that  suinptuousness  can  perform  to  celebrate 
the  hero !  Mark  the  titles  and  inscriptions  it  has 
flung  around — vain  indications  of  an  influence  not 
now  to  be  exercised.  Mark  those  sculptured  images, 
that,  sorrowfully  bending  round  yon  monument,  ap 
pear  to  weep  :  mark  those  aspiring  columns,  which 
magnificently  attest  our  nothingness.  Amidst  this 
profusion  of  honours,  nothing  is  wanting  but  the  per 
son  to  whom  they  are  dedicated.  Let  us  then  lament 
our  frail  and  fugitive  existence,  while  we  perform  the 
rites  of  a  sickly  immortality  to  the  memory  of  our 
departed  hero.  I  now  address  myself  particularly  to 
those  wTho  are  advanced  in  the  same  career  of  mili 
tary  glory.  Approach  and  bewail  your  great  com 
mander.  I  can  almost  persuade  myself  that  I  hear 
you  saying,  '  Is  he  then  no  more — our  intrepid  chief, 
who  through  the  rugged  paths  of  danger  led  us  on  to 
victory  ?  His  name,  the  only  part  of  him  that  re 
mains,  is  all-sufficient  to  excite  us  to  future  exertions ; 
his  departed  spirit  now  whispers  to  our  souls  the 
sacred  admonition  that  if  we  hope  to  obtain  at  death 
the  reward  of  our  labours,  we  must  serve  our  God  in 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       397 

heaven,  and  not  be  satisfied  with  serving  our  sover 
eign  on  earth.'  Yes !  serve  your  heavenly  King — 
enter  fully  into  the  service  of  your  God,  the  great 
remunerator,  who  in  the  prodigality  of  his  mercy  will 
estimate  higher  one  pious  act,  or  a  drop  of  water 
given  in  his  name,  than  the  sovereigns  of  the  earth  will 
prize  the  sacrifice  of  your  lives  in  their  service.  Shall 
not  they  also,  approach  this  mournful  monument, 
who  are  united  to  him  by  the  sacred  bond  of  friend 
ship  ?  Draw  near,  ye  companions  of  his  social  hours ; 
pay  homage  to  the  memory  of  your  associate,  whose 
goodness  of  heart  equalled  his  intrepidity  of  soul,  and 
let  his  death  be  at  once  the  object  of  your  sorrow, 
your  consolation,  and  your  example.  As  for  me,  if  I 
may  be  permitted,  in  my  turn,  to  deliver  the  senti 
ments  of  my  affection,  I  should  say,  Oh  !  thou  illus 
trious  theme  of  my  encomium  and  of  my  regret,  thou 
shalt  ever  claim  a  place  in  my  grateful  recollection. 
The  image,  however,  which  is  there  engraved,  is  not 
impressed  with  that  daring  eye  which  fortells  vic 
tory  ;  for  I  will  behold  nothing  in  thee  which  death 
effaces  ;  but  on  this  image  shall  be  found  the  features 
of  immortality.  The  image  presents  itself  as  I  be 
held  thee  at  the  hour  of  dissolution,  when  the  glories 
of  the  heavenly  world  seemed  to  burst  upon  thee. 
Yes,  at  that  moment,  even  on  the  couch  of  languor, 
did  I  behold  thee  more  triumphant  than  in  the  plains 


398  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

of  Fribourg  or  Eocroy — so  true  is  what  the  beloved 
disciple  says :  c  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh 
the  world,  even  our  faith.'  Enjoy,  oh  prince,  this 
victory,  and  let  it  be  the  object  of  thy  eternal  tri 
umph.  Indulge  these  closing  accents  of  a  voice 
which  was  not  unknown  to  thee.  With  thee  shall 
terminate  all  my  funeral  discourses ;  instead  of  deplor 
ing  the  death  of  others,  I  will  labour  to  make  my 
own  resemble  thine  ;  and  happy  will  it  be  for  me,  if? 
taking  warning  from  these  gray  hairs,  I  devote  myself 
exclusively  to  the  duties  of  the  ministry,  and  reserve 
for  my  flock,  whom  I  ought  to  feed  with  the  word  of 
life,  the  glimmerings  of  an  eye  which  is  almost  ex 
tinguished,  and  the  faint  efforts  of  a  voice  that  is  al 
most  expiring." 

Nothing  could  be  finer — nothing  more  effective  to 
bring  down  our  elevated  feelings  to  calm  serenity — 
nothing  better  fitted  for  the  closing  scene  than  those 
"  gray  hairs,"  that  "  feeble  voice,"  that  glance  into  a 
future  state — all  well  adapted  to  inspire  the  heart 
with  the  tender  sadness  becoming  such  an  occasion. 
Surely  Bossuet  should  be  placed  in  the  same  rank 
with  men  of  eloquence,  which  Milton  holds  in  the 
class  of  poets. 

After  Bossuet  had  left  Paris,  to  enter  upon  his 
other  functions  to  which  he  had  been  appointed, 
BOURDALOUE  appeared  in  1669  ;  preached  the  "  avent " 


KLOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       399 

before  the  court  in  1670,  and  was  chosen  one  of  the 
preachers  "  before  the  king."  At  his  first  appear 
ance,  his  powers  as  a  pulpit  orator  were  highly  esti 
mated  ;  multitudes  of  classes  crowded  to  hear  him — 
his  reputation  thus  early  established,  never  dimin 
ished — the  lustre  increased  as  he  advanced ;  and  to 
the  close  of  his  life  he  was  regarded  by  all  as  one  of 
the  finest  preacher  of  the  age.  He  had  not,  it  is  true, 
the  lofty  talents  of  Bossuet,  but  he  excelled  in  labour 
him  whom  he  was  incapable  of  equalling  in  genius  ; 
for  forty  years  he  devoted  himself  almost  entirely  to 
the  art  of  preaching ;  to  the  preparation  of  sermons 
for  the  instruction  of  the  people.  These  sermons,  in 
stead  of  sketches  on  which  he  enlarged  during  de 
livery,  are  full  written  discourses,  prepared  with 
much  care ;  and  on  every  variety  of  subjects  suited 
to  the  pulpit.  They  are  not  such  as  answered  only  a 
temporary  purpose,  like  vegetables  of  a  night,  or  in 
sects  of  a  day  ;  they  are  read  as  specimens  of  oratori 
cal  elegance  ;  put  into  the  hands  of  youth,  as  models ; 
and  presented  as  lessons  for  the  formation  of  their 
taste  and  the  improvement  of  their  hearts.  No  one 
can  read  them  without  perceiving  the  elevation  to 
which  genius  may  be  raised  by  intense  study.  In 
the  variety  of  subjects  which  are  discussed,  we  see  a 
fulness  and  luxuriance  which  leaves  nothing  further 
to  be  said  or  supposed  ;  an  accurate  logic  which  de- 


400  THOUGHTS    ON    PEEACHING. 

tects  and  exposes  sophistry;  an  admirable  use  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  sometimes  of  the  Fathers  ;  a  profound 
knowledge  of  the  human  heart ;  a  continued  effort  to 
keep  himself  out  of  sight,  and  an  habitual  aim  at  the 
conversion  of  his  hearers — all  expressed  in  a  style 
simple  and  nervous,  natural  and  noble. 

A  clear  and  proper  method  is  visible  in  all  his 
writings  ;  to  this  he  devotes  much  attention  ;  in  this 
he  far  excels  Bossuet ;  he  has  the  happy  talent  of 
arranging  his  arguments  and  thoughts,  with  that 
order  of  which  the  Koman  critic  speaks,  when  he 
compares  the  merit  of  an  orator  wrho  composes  a  dis 
course  to  the  skill  of  a  general  who  commands  an 
army* — every  thing  is  found  in  its  proper  place. 

But  Bourdaloue  is  not  more  distinguished  for  the 
soundness  of  his  judgment,  and  the  strength  of  his 
reasoning,  than  for  his  power  at  times  in  affecting  the 
passions.  Not  satisfied  with  impressing  the  mind 
with  the  sense  of  truth,  he  rouses  the  affections  of  his 
hearers  by  the  energy  and  pathos  of  eloquence — we 
meet  continually  with  those  strokes  of  passion  which 
penetrate  and  melt  the  heart.  In  his  sermons  on  the 
Passion  of  Christ,  of  which  he  has  many,  but  in 
which  there  is  no  repetition,  (presenting  in  each  the 
subject  under  different  views,)  there  are  several  in 
stances.  "We  quote  from  one,  founded  on  Luke  xxiii. 
*  "  Est  velut  imperatoria  virtus." — QUINT.  INSTIT.  II. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FKENCH  PULPIT.       401 

33,  in  which  is  illustrated  the  truth,  that  in  the  death 
of  the  Saviour,  "  righteousness  and  peace  have  em 
braced  each  other." 

I.  Christ  died  as  the  victim  of  Divine  Justice. 
II.  As  an  exhibition  of  Divine  mercy. 

Under  the  first  head  the  preacher  asks  ;  *  "  Who 
is  the  victim  immolated  on  the  altar  erected  on  Cal 
vary  ?  None  other  than  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  in 
whom  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily. 
From  the  moment  of  his  incarnation,  he  became  this 
sacrifice,  he  descended  into  the  world  and  clothed 
himself  with  a  mortal  body  to  do  homage  to  the 
Creator  of  the  universe,  and  to  offer  himself  a  burnt- 
offering.  In  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  this  sacrifice 
was  continued,  when,  presented  by  the  hands  of 
Mary,  he  was  placed  in  the  arms  of  Simeon  ;  but  that 
was  the  morning  offering — this  upon  the  cross  was 
the  evening  sacrifice.  But  why  was  he  exposed  to 
this  inexorable  justice — this  '  Lamb  of  God  without 
blemish  and  without  spot  ?  Of  what  crime  had  he 
been  guilty  ?  "What  had  he  done  to  draw  upon  him 
wrath  from  on  high,  and  which  exposed  him  to  such 
ignominy  and  death.  You  know  that  in  himself  he 
is  the  Holy  of  holies  ;  that  in  his  celestial  abode  he 
received  the  adoration  of  the  angelic  spirits,  that  he 
was  perfectly  blessed,  and  that  he  needed  no  creature 

*  Car  quelle  victime  lui  est  immolee  sur  1'autel,  &c.,  &c. 


4:02  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

to  add  to  his  happiness ;  that  when  he  appeared  on 
earth  as  an  exile,  and  deigned  to  converse  with  men, 
he  knew  sin  only  to  combat  and  destroy  it ;  that  to 
him  was  rendered  more  than  once  that  illustrious  tes 
timony  which  re-echoed  along  the  banks  of  Jordan, 
and  resounded   upon  Tabor — '  This  is   my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.'       Yet  this  Saviour, 
thus  holy  in  himself,  i  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a 
servant,' — yea,  of  a  sinner  ;  and  though  he  had  never 
committed  sin,  and  was  incapable  of  committing  it, 
yet  c  he  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  upon  the  tree ; ' 
his  holy  Father  charged  our  sins  upon  him,  covered, 
as  it  were,  his  whole  soul  with  them — '  laid  on  him 
the  iniquity  of  us  all.'     Under  an  aspect  so  hideous, 
so  abhorrent  to  infinite  holiness,  Heaven  considers 
him  on  the  cross ;  under  such  a  weight  of  sin,  the 
justice  of  God  views  him  a  fit  object  of  its  vengeance ; 
it  suffers  him  not  to  escape  ;  it  pursues  him  in  a  hos 
tile  and  vindictive  manner,  and  pronounces  the  sen 
tence  of  condemnation.     Represent  to  yourselves  the 
victim  of  which  the  apostle  speaks  in  his  epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  (xiii.  11) — upon  which  were  placed  the 
iniquities  of  the  people  for  expiation,  and  which  c  was 
burned  without  the  camp.'     It  is  a  sensible  image  of 
what  was   accomplished   in   the   person  of  our  Re 
deemer.      They  conduct  him  out  of  the  city — they 
bring  him  to  Calvary — it  is  the  last  place  where  he  is 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       403 

to  appear,  as  the  c  man  of  sorrows  ; '  and  there  divine 
justice  stands  waiting  to  exact  the  whole  debt  for 
which  he  is  responsible ;  to  execute  the  heavy  pun 
ishment  by  the  executioners  it  has  chosen.  When 
God  drove  guilty  man  from  Eden,  he  sent  an  angel 
with  a  double  flaming  sword  to  guard  forever  the 
access  to  the  tree  of  life.  By  the  ministry  of  an  ex 
terminating  angel  he  smote  the  army  of  Sennacherib, 
and  for  the  safety  of  his  people  made  known  his  power 
against  the  haughty  monarch  ;  but  when  a  sacrifice 
was  to  be  effected  for  the  salvation  of  men,  no  angel 
was  sent  to  afflict  the  soul  of  the  Redeemer  ;  supreme 
and  sovereign  justice  itself  descended,  and  invisibly 
presided  over  the  bloody  and  terrible  execution." 

In  a  similar  manner  the  eloquent  preacher  pro 
ceeds,  and  shows  in  detail  how  the  executioners  of  the 
Saviour  are  mere  instruments  in  the  hands  of  God  of 
completing  his  purpose  ;  and  how  powerful,  and  holy, 
and  severe  is  that  justice  which  crushes  a  God-man. 

The  second  part,  which  represents  the  death  of 
Christ  as  an  exhibition  of  the  divine  mercy,  affords  a 
beautiful  instance  of  antithesis  ;  making,  by  the  con 
trast,  the  object  stronger  and  the  impression  deeper. 
In  the  first  part,  we  behold  the  divine  justice  citing 
the  Son  of  God  to  its  tribunal,  and  sacrificing  him, 
satisfied  with  nothing  but  his  blood  and  death ;  so 
inflexible  as  to  disregard  his  dignity  and  personal  in- 


404:  THOUGHTS    ON   PEEACHING. 

nocence;  every  thing,  therefore,  is  awful,  and  the 
thoughts  terrible.  In  the  second  part,  all  the  love  and 
grace  of  which  the  Saviour  is  capable,  is  presented, 
and  every  thing  is  tender  and  pathetic. 

*  "  The  nearer  Jesus  advances  to  the  close  of  life, 
the  tenderer  is  his  heart ;  on  the  cross  he  breathes 
only  mercy.  He  prays,  and  it  is  a  prayer  of  mercy  ; 
he  promises,  and  it  is  a  promise  of  mercy  ;  he  gives, 
and  it  is  a  gift  of  mercy. 

"  1.  He  prays,  and  it  is  a  prayer  of  mercy — of  the 
richest  mercy,  for  he  prays  for  his  enemies.  He  prays 
for  the  priests  and  rulers  of  the  synagogue  who  had 
formed  the  conspiracy  against  him ;  for  the  soldiers 
who  had  arrested,  the  people  who  had  insulted,  the 
false  witnesses  who  had  calumniated,  Pilate  who  had 
condemned,  and  the  executioners  who  had  crucified 
him.  It  would  have  been  mercy  most  wonderful,  if 
he  had  done  it  on  the  acknowledgment  and  repentance 
of  their  crime.  But  he  pleads  for  them,  when  they 
are  loading  him  with  new  outrages ;  when  they  are 
uttering  blasphemies  and  imprecations ;  when  they 
are  shaking  their  heads  with  scorn,  and  saying,  c  he 
saved  others — himself  he  cannot  save — if  thou  be  the 
Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross  ' — when  they 
are  deriding  his  power  and  holiness,  his  offices  and 

*  Plus  il  avance  vers  la  fin  de  sa  carriere,  plus  son  coeur  s'atten- 
drit,  &c.,  &c. 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       405 

divinity.  In  the  midst  of  such  insults  and  execra 
tions,  he  raises  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  what  does  he 
ask  ?  Is  it  not  that  the  thunders  may  descend,  that 
righteous  vengeance  may  follow  the  commission  of 
such  horrid  crimes  ?  No  !  my  brethren,  mercy  leads 
him  to  speak,  no  word  is  uttered  which  is  not  dictated 
by  mercy.  '  Father,  forgive  them,  they  know  not 
what  they  do.'  He  does  not  say  God,  but  Father,  for 
that  is  a  name  more  tender  and  endearing — more  fa 
vourable  for  giving  audience  to  petition,  and  for  avert 
ing  wrath.  He  does  not  plead  for  this  one  or  that  one 
less  guilty  than  others  in  the  conspiracy  against  him, 
but  he  prays  in  general,  without  excluding  any,  with 
out  excepting  those  wTho  treated  him  so  cruelly  in  the 
court  of  Caiaphas  and  Herod ;  those  who  scourged 
and  smote  him,  or  those  who  pierced  his  temples  with 
thorns,  or  those  who  drove  the  nails  into  his  hands 
and  feet.  There  is  not  one  whom  his  arms  and  bosom 
are  not  open  to  receive — not  one  for  whom  he  would 
not  be  an  advocate  and  intercessor.  He  more  than 
prays,  he  extenuates  their  crime ;  his  love  leads  him 
to  find  something  to  plead  in  their  behalf — c  they  know 
not  what  they  do  ' — they  are  blind,  and  know  not  the 
enormity  of  the  offence  which  they  are  committing ; 
they  know  not  wThom  they  revile  and  torture ;  they 
know  not  that  they  are  crucifying  the  Lord  of  glory. 
"  2.  He  promises,  and  it  is  a  promise  of  mercy. 


406  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

Admire  the  virtue  and  efficacy  of  that  prayer  which 
has  just  ascended  to  heaven — scarcely  is  it  offered  be 
fore  it  is  answered  by  a  miracle  of  grace — scarcely  is 
it  offered  before  an  enemy  of  Christ,  a  thief  and  male 
factor,  is  converted  and  pardoned.  He  was  a  wretch, 
worse  probably  than  Barabbas — a  blasphemer  who 
united  with  the  other  malefactor  in  reviling  Jesus,  for 
the  Evangelist  says,  (referring  to  them  both,)  they 
c  cast  the  same  in  his  teeth.'  But  behold,  by  a  secret 
and  resistless  impression  of  divine  grace,  this  bold 
blasphemer  and  robber  changed  into  an  humble  peni 
tent,  who  gives  glory  to  God,  who  publicly  confesses 
his  sins,  and  acknowledges  himself  worthy  of  death, 
who  publishes  the  innocence  of  that  'just  one'  who 
is  crucified,  who  addresses  Jesus  as  his  sovereign,  and 

/  O      ? 

asks  admission  into  his  heavenly  kingdom,  and  who 
receives  from  the  Son  of  God  that  consoling  assurance, 
'  to-day  thou  shalt  be  with,  me  in  Paradise.' 

"3.  He  gives,  and  it  is  a  gift  of  mercy.  Do  you 
ask,  what  is  his  last  will  and  testament  ?  what  the 
disposition  of  this  dying  man's  effects  ?  what  personal 
property  or  landed  estate  does  he  bequeath  ?  Ah ! 
my  brethren,  what  riches  had  he  to  leave  who  c  had 
not  where  to  lay  his  head  ' — who  in  ordinary  circum 
stances  was  sustained  by  alms,  and  in  extraordinary 
cases,  by  miracles  ?  What  then  does  he  give  ?  From 
that  engine  of  torture  to  which  he  is  fastened  he  looks 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       407 

down,  and  what  is  before  those  eyes  that  begin  to  be 
weighed  down  by  the  hand  of  death  ?  His  own 
mother  Mary,  and  his  beloved  disciple,  John — that  is 
the  priceless  treasure,  the  precious  succession.  At 
this  sight,  all  exhausted  as  he  is,  his  heart  awakens ; 
in  his  state  of  suffering,  increasing  every  moment,  he 
is  not  so  occupied  as  to  be  regardless  of  these  friends ; 
he  cannot  leave  them  without  giving  them  a  last 
proof  of  his  remembrance,  and  a  genuine  pledge  of 
his  love  ;  he  cannot  commend  his  spirit  into  the  hands 
of  his  Father  without  affording  them  consolation. 
With  serenity,  firmness,  and  tenderness,  he  turns  to 
his  mother  :  i  behold  thy  son — he  will  discharge  the 
filial  office,  guard,  nourish,  and  defend  thee.'  Then 
saith  he  to  the  disciple,  '  behold  thy  mother — regard 
her  as  tliou  wouldst  the  tenderest  of  all  connexions, 
as  thy  mother.'  '  And  from  that  hour  that  disciple 
took  her  to  his  own  home.' ': 

The  conclusion,  in  wrhich  the  hearers  are  invited 
to  cultivate  love  to  Christ  as  the  best  preparation  for 
death,  is  urgent  and  tender — we  have,  however,  no 
room  for  it. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  fidelity  of  Bossuet  in 
addressing  his  king  ;  we  find  the  same  faithfulness  in 
Eourdaloue ;  the  same  disposition  to  remind  him  of 
his  duty  to  his  God ;  the  same  pungent  appeals  to 
the  conscience,  the  same,  or  severer  reproofs  of  vices 


408  THOUGHTS  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

which  were  prevalent  in  the  court.  Instead  of  quoting 
from  his  addresses,  we  shall  relate  a  circumstance 
which  is  well  authenticated,  illustrative  of  this  trait 
in  his  character,  and  of  the  power  of  divine  truth ; 
fully  equal  to  the  courage  of  John  the  Baptist  towards 
Herod,  or  to  the  intrepidity  of  Paul  before  Felix. 

In  one  of  the  sermons  which  he  preached  before 
the  monarch,  he  described  with  great  eloquence  the 
horrors  of  an  adulterous  life,  its  abomination  in  the 
sight  of  God,  its  scandal  to  man,  and  all  the  evils 
which  attend  it ;  but  he  managed  his  discourse  with 
so  much  address,  that  he  kept  the  king  from  suspect 
ing  that  the  thunder  was  ultimately  to  fall  upon  him. 
In  general,  Bourdaloue  spake  in  a  level  tone  of  voice, 
with  his  eyes  partly  closed.  On  this  occasion,  having 
wound  the  attention  of  the  monarch  and  the  audience 
to  the  highest  pitch,  he  paused.  The  audience  ex 
pected  something  terrible,  and  seemed  to  fear  the  next 
word.  The  pause  continued  for  some  time — at  length 
the  preacher,  fixing  his  eye  directly  on  his  royal 
hearer,  and  in  a  tone  of  voice  equally  expressive  of 
horror  and  concern,  cried  out  in  the  words  of  the 
prophet,  "  ihou  art  the  man  !  "  then  leaving  the  words 
to  their  effect,  he  concluded  with  a  general  prayer  to 
heaven  for  the  conversion  of  all  sinners.  When  the 
service  was  concluded,  the  monarch  walked  slowly 
from  the  church,  and  ordered  Bourdaloue  into  his 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       4Q9 

presence.  He  reminded  him  of  his  general  protec 
tion  of  religion,  the  kindness  which  he  had  ever  shown 
to  the  society  of  Jesus,  his  particular  attention  to  him 
self  and  his  friends.  He  then  sternly  asked  him, 
"  What  could  have  been  your  motive  for  insulting  me, 
thus  publicly,  in  the  presence  of  my  subjects?" 
Bourdaloue  fell  on  his  knees  ;  "  God  is  my  witness 
that  it  was  not  my  wish  to  insult  your  majesty  ;  but 
I  am  a  minister  of  God,  and  must  not  disguise  the 
truth.  "What  I  said  in  my  sermon  is  my  morning  and 
evening  prayer.  May  God  in  his  infinite  mercy  grant 
me  to  see  the  day,  when  the  greatest  of  monarchs 
shall  be  the  holiest  of  kings."  The  king  was  affected, 
and  silently  dismissed  the  preacher ;  but  from  this 
time  the  court  began  to  observe  that  change  which  led 
Louis  to  a  life  of  greater  regularity. 

More  known  and  read  among  us  than  either  of  the 
others  of  whom  we  have  spoken,  is  MASSILLON  ;  whose 
name  is  almost  proverbial  as  a  master  of  pulpit  elo 
quence.  He  was  transferred  to  Paris  about  the  year 
1690,  and  was,  therefore,  contemporary  with  Bourda 
loue.  Admiring  him  who  at  that  time  was  regarded 
as  the  prince  of  preachers,  he  determined  not  to  imi 
tate  him,  but  to  strike  out  for  himself  a  new  path  in 
the  field  of  pulpit  oratory.  He  was  satisfied  that 
profound  argumentation  is  not  sufficient  for  the  pul 
pit  ;  that  a  preacher  must  not  only  instruct  the  mind, 
13 


4:10  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

but  succeed  in  affecting  the  passions  ;  that  if  some  of 
the  hearers  are  incapable  of  laying  hold  of  an  act 
of  reasoning,  all  have  souls  capable  of  being  moved 
by  weighty  sentiments.  This  plan  he  proposed  ;  and 
this  plan  he  executed  like  a  man  of  genius. 

None  of  the  French  preachers  have  so  much  of 
that  onction,  that  tender  and  affecting  manner  which 
interests  and  allures  ;  that  mild  magic,  gentle  fascina 
tion,  endearing  simplicity  which  characterizes  the 
Evangelists.  This  is  apparent  in  almost  all  his  dis 
courses.  He  has  not,  it  is  true,  the  sublime  strains 
of  Bossuet,  and  does  not  so  often  produce  violent  agi 
tations,  yet  he  succeeds  in  insinuating  himself  into  the 
heart,  and  awakening  the  tenderest  affections  ;  he  lays 
open  the  secret  recesses  of  the  soul  with  so  delicate  a 
hand,  that  the  hearer,  before  he  is  aware,  is  persuaded 
and  overcome.  Instead  of  wandering  in  abstract 
speculation,  he  has  all  the  liveliness  of  continued  ad 
dress,  and  speaks  to  his  hearers,  all  his  hearers,  be 
cause  he  speaks  to  the  heart.  This  is  the  characteris 
tic  of  his  eloquence — what  in  others  is  proof  and  rea 
son,  in  him  is  feeling.  For  this  cause,  every  one  saw 
himself  in  the  lively  picture  that  was  presented ;  every 
one  imagined  the  discourse  addressed  to  him,  and 
supposed  the  speaker  meant  him  only.  Hence  the 
remarkable  effects  of  his  preaching.  No  one  after 
hearing  him,  stopped  to  praise  or  criticise — each  re- 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  PULPIT.       411 

tired  in  a  pensive  silence,  and  with  a  thoughtful  air, 
carrying  home  the  arrow  which  the  preacher  had 
lodged  in  his  heart. 

In  his  funeral  orations,  he  is  not  so  happy ;  he 
does  not  there  fully  sustain  his  character  as  an  orator. 
He  who  in  his  sermons  made  his  eloquence  seen  and 
felt — at  one  time  gentle  and  persuasive  at  another 
strong  and  vehement ;  who  knew  so  well  how  to  paint 

religion  in  all  its  charms,  and  sin  in  all  its  deformity, 

«/  / 

who  seldom  failed  in  reaching  the  heart,  here  disap 
points  us,  and  shows  that  he  was  better  calculated  to 
instruct  kings  and  princes  than  to  celebrate  them. 
We  must  not,  however,  overlook  his  funeral  oration 
at  the  interment  of  Louis  XIY. — an  office  to  which  he 
was  probably  designated  by  the  monarch  himself ;  for 
we  are  told  that  among  other  arrangements  which  he 
made  on  his  death-bed,  he  gave  particular  directions 
about  his  funeral  solemnities.  It  is  a  discourse  worthy, 
in  many  respects,  of  the  grandeur  of  the  occasion ; 
possessing  a  majesty  of  style  well  becoming  such  an 
occasion,  and  adorned  with  all  the  magnificence  of 
imagery — but  yet,  with  all  its  richness,  while  it  ex 
cites  the  highest  admiration,  it  is  scarcely  capable  of 
touching  the  heart.  One  excellency,  however,  must 
not  be  overlooked — it  is  not  an  unqualified  eulogy — 
the  orator  speaks  openly  of  the  follies  and  vices  of 
him  whom  he  celebrates,  and  hesitates  not  to  declare 


412  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

that  this  reign,  so  brilliant  to  the  monarch,  was  most 
disastrous  to  the  people  ;  an  instance  well  worthy  of 
being  noted,  of  the  courage  and  fidelity  of  a  minister 
of  God. 

The  exordium  has  often  been  quoted.  To  see  the 
propriety  of  the  language,  and  to  account  for  the 
effect,  we  must  consider  the  text  of  the  preacher,  and 
the  circumstances  of  his  position.  The  text  was  Eccl. 
i.  16,  17 — "  I  became  great,*  and  got  more  wisdom 
than  all  they  that  were  before  me  in  Jerusalem  ;  I 
perceived  that  this  also  is  vexation  of  spirit."  The 
circumstances  were  peculiar.  The  church  was  hung 
with  black  :  a  magnificent  mausoleum  was  raised  over 

'  O 

the  bier,  the  edifice  was  filled  with  trophies  of  the 
monarch's  glories,  daylight  was  excluded,  and  its 
place  supplied  by  innumerable  tapers  ;  and  the  cere 
mony  was  attended  by  the  most  illustrious  persons  in 
the  kingdom.  Massillon  ascended  the  pulpit,  contem 
plated  for  some  moments  the  scene  before  him,  then 
raised  his  arms  to  heaven,  looked  down  on  the  scene 
beneath,  and  after  a  short  pause,  slowly  said,  (in  allu 
sion  to  his  text,  which  he  had  already  repeated,)  in  a 
solemn,  subdued  tone,  "  God  only  is  great  !  "  "With 
one  impulse,  all  the  audience  rose  from  their  seats, 
turned  to  the  altar,  and  slowly  and  reverently  bowed. 

*  Though  in  our  version  it  is,  "I  am  come  to  great  estate,"  yet  in 
the  French  it  i?,  "  Jo  suis  devenu  grand." 


ELOQUENCE    OK   THE    FKKNC1I    PULPIT.  413 

Another  instance  of  the  mighty  effect  of  his  preach 
ing,  is  known  to  every  one,  and  has  been  quoted  a 
thousand  times — the  instance  mentioned  by  Yoltaire, 
when  Massillon  preached  his  celebrated  sermon  on 
"  the  small  number  of  the  righteous."  When  the 
preacher  was  drawing  near  to  the  close,  the  whole  as 
sembly  were  moved  ;  by  a  sort  of  involuntary  motion 
they  started  from  their  seats,  and  manifested  such  in 
dications  of  surprise  and  terror  as  for  a  time  wholly 
disconcerted  the  speaker.  We  have  often  read  the 
discourse  to  inquire  what  could  produce  such  a  start 
ling  effect.  Much  of  it  is  to  be  attributed  to  the 
timely  and  repeated  use  of  that  powerful  figure,  In 
terrogation  ;  a  figure  by  which  Demosthenes  aroused 
the  Athenians,  and  Cicero  overwhelmed  Cataline ;  a 
sure  method,  when  employed  at  the  proper  time  and 
place,  of  startling  the  hearers,  and  agitating  the  heart. 
The  preacher  had  accurately  described  the  character 
of  the  righteous — he  had  succeeded  in  separating  his 
hearers  from  the  rest  of  mankind ;  they  thought  of 
no  others,  and  regarded  themselves  alone  as  criminals 
to  be  judged.  They  see  the  judge  descending,  ready 
to  make  the  separation  and  to  pronounce  the  sentence  ; 
they  are  filled  with  trembling  solicitude  to  know 
on  whom  the  thunder  will  fall ;  their  imaginations  are 
terrified,  and  their  thoughts  confused.  When  the 
orator  has  brought  his  hearers  into  this  state,  and  sees 


4:14  THOUGHTS    ON    PliE ACHING. 

their  countenances  reflecting  their  emotions,  then 
gathering  all  his  strength,  and  with  tones  and  actions 
corresponding,  he  pours  forth  the  sublime  apostrophe  ; 
"  Where  !  O  !  my  God,  where  are  thy  people  ?  "Where 
are  you,  O  !  ye  righteous — stand  forth,  and  enjoy  your 
reward  !  "  There  is  a  startling  surprise  in  this  inter 
rogation,  that  may  well  excite  sensation.  The  words 
increase  the  consternation  which  had  long  been  gather 
ing  ;  each  hearer  answers  the  repeated  questions  put 
to  him  by  personal  accusations  ;  he  feels  that  he  is  the 
criminal ;  he  hears  the  irrevocable  sentence  ;  and  he 
shrieks  and  trembles,  lest  it  be  immediately  exe 
cuted.* 

If  Bossuet  be  compared  to  the  great  Athenian 
orator,  Massillon  may  well  be  termed  the  "  French 
Cicero."  Like  him,  he  is  rich  in  ornament,  pathetic 
and  persuasive ;  has  a  diction  smooth  and  elegant, 
and  is  capable  at  times  of  seizing  and  captivating  the 
heart. 

"We    shall    not    present    any   extracts   from   his 

*  This  sermon  was  preached  a  second  time  with  most  powerful, 
though  not  perhaps  equal  effect,  in  the  royal  chapel  at  Versailles,  when 
Louis  was  deeply  affected. 

"line  commotion  fut  excitee  par  le  memo  trait  de  ce  sermon  dans 
la  chapelle  de  Versailles.  Louis  XIV.  la  partagea  devant  Masillon  qu'on 
vit  aussitot  changer  de  visage,  ct  couvrir  son  front  de  ses  tremblantes 
mains.  Les  soupirs  etouffes  de  1'assemblee  rendirent  1'orateur  muet 
pendant  quelques  instants,  et  il  parut  lui-meme  encore  plus  consterne 
que  toute  la  cour." 


ELOQUENCE   OF   TIIE   F11ENC1I   PULPIT.  415 

writings,  as  so  many  have  been  translated  into 
English  ;  though  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  some 
of  these  translations  are  so  weak  and  inaccurate,  and 
fall  so  far  short  of  the  original.* 

We  cannot  take  leave  of  these  illustrious  preachers 
without  inquiring  into  their  manner  of  delivery.  Like 
the  ancients,  they  regarded  it  as  an  essential  branch 
of  oratory,  paid  to  it  eminent  attention,  and  are  said 
to  have  carried  it  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 
Bossuet  (as  we  have  already  intimated)  seldom  wrote 
all  that  he  said.  Retaining  in  his  memory  what  he 
had  composed  in  his  closet,  he  filled  up  the  unfinished 
sketch  in  the  pulpit,  and  found  a  readiness  of  expres 
sion,  marked  with  energy  and  grace.  Bourdaloue  and 
Massillon  wrote  their  discourses  in  full,  and  preached 
memoriter  ;  the  latter  so  accurately,  that  when  asked, 
which  he  regarded  as  his  best  sermons,  he  replied, 
"  those  which  arc  the  most  exactly  remembered." 

Bossuet,  in  his  personal  appearance,  was  liberally 
gifted  by  nature  for  an  orator  ;  possessing  a  fine  and 
majestic  figure.  He  spake  with  great  authority,  in  a 

*  His  "Le  Petit  Careme,"  or  Discourses  before  Louis  XIV.,  and 
his  work  on  the  "  Priesthood,"  have  been  well  translated  ;  but  we  can 
not  say  the  same  of  some  of  his  best  sermons,  translated  by  Dickson. 
That  work  is  servilely  liberal,  retaining  the  French  idioms,  expressing 
the  thoughts  of  the  writer  most  unskilfully,  presenting  rhetorical  and 
grammatical  errors,  and  giving  us  very  little  idea  of  the  elegance  of 
Massillon.  If  he  had  been  translated,  as  Saurin  has  been,  by  Robinson, 
how  much  more  would  he  be  read  and  prized ! 


416  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

manner  which  indicated  the  expectation  of  success ; 
with  a  strong,  firm,  and  manly  voice ;  with  an  air  of 
candour,  simplicity,  and  vehemence,  which  showed 
that  his  object  was  to  convince  and  persuade,  rather 
than  to  gratify  and  please.  Bourdaloue,  in  one  re 
spect,  was  peculiar ;  in  the  delivery  of  his  sermons, 
especially  in  the  exordium,  he  partially  closed  his 
eyes,  and  is  so  represented  in  all  the  portraits  of  him 
we  have  seen  ;  though  he  was  never  charged  with  the 
want  of  ease  or  grace.  In  his  manner  he  was  grave 
and  serious,  and  had  all  the  dignity  of  a  prophet. 
His  voice  was  full  and  clear,  and  when  elevated  to  the 
highest  pitch,  was  sufficient  to  fill  the  largest  house 
with  the  volume  of  the  sound,  and  to  produce  a  deep 
impression.  His  eloquence  was  usually  attended  with 
a  strong  conviction  that  great  as  he  was  as  an  orator, 
he  was  still  greater  as  a  Christian  and  a  minister  of 
God.  Massillon  approached  still  nearer  to  perfection, 
and  had  the  power  of  uttering  his  sentiments  with  the 
highest  possible  skill.  His  clear  and  melodious  voice 
was  completely  under  his  control — the  lowest  whisper 
could  be  distinctly  heard — and  some  of  his  tones  were 
so  sweet  and  tender  that  they  went  directly  to  the 
heart,  and  at  once  drew  tears  from  the  eyes.  And 
yet,  when  necessary,  his  shrill  tones  penetrated  like 
arrows  ;  he  could  utter  such  piercing  cries,  as  would 
startle  his  hearers,  and  bring  them  upon  their  feet — 


ELOQUENCE  OF  THE  FKENCH  PULPIT.       417 

and  by  such  instances  of  the  terrible,  make  his  whole 
audience  bow  before  him.  Thus  differing  from  each 
other,  these  orators,  in  one  respect,  were  all  alike ; 
in  their  elocution,  they  imitated  nature,  as  they  had, 
in  composition,  followed  her  directions.  They  spake 
with  silch  life  and  spirit,  such  freedom  and  fervency, 
that  (whether  Bossuet  was  speaking  extempore,  or 
Massillon  repeating  what  he  had  committed  to  mem 
ory,)  all  seemed  to  come  fresh  from  the  inind  and 
heart. 

Such  is  the  character  of  that  eloquence  which  once 
prevailed  in  France,  and  such  the  character  of  the 
men  who  employed  it.  They  exerted  a  commanding 
influence,  and  swayed  the  minds,  and  imaginations, 
and  feelings  of  their  auditors,  as  Demosthenes  did  the 
Athenians,  and  Cicero  the  Roman  senate.  Deeply 
affected  themselves,  they  deeply  affected  others ;  strong 
emotions  displayed  by  words,  countenance,  tones, 
gestures,  the  whole  manner,  produced,  we  have  seen, 
effects  perfectly  overpowering.  Is  not  eloquence  like 
this — the  eloquence  of  warmth  and  passion — peculi 
arly  suited  to  the  pulpit  ?  Must  men  be  regarded  as 
mere  intellectual  beings,  void  of  sentiment  and  feel 
ing  ?  Is  not  this  elevation  of  soul  and  style  as  well 
adapted  to  our  age  and  country  as  to  the  age  of  Louis 
the  Great,  or  the  country  of  France  ?  "Would  it  not 
•produce  similar  effects  ?  Shall  men  be  allured  to  our 
IS* 


418  THOUGHTS  ON  PLEACHING. 

sanctuaries  by  artificial  attractions  rather  than  by  the 
charms  of  eloquence ;  by  the  gorgeousness  of  archi 
tecture  rather  than  by  that  most  attractive  of  all  arts, 
the  art  of  speaking  ;  by  the  fascinations  even  of  music, 
rather  than  by  the  enchanting  oratory,  which,  while 
it  expands  the  understanding,  touches  the  secret 
springs  of  the  heart  ?  That  will  please  men  long  after 
external  ornament  ceases  to  gratify  ;  satiated  as  they 
will  be,  in  time,  by  other  arts,  they  will  never  be 
weary  in  their  attention  to  solid  thoughts  well  attired, 
and  well  exhibited,  in  listening  to  a  preacher  habitually 
under  the  influence  of  strong  passion,  and  speaking 
boldly,  ardently,  and  simply. 

May  the  time  soon  come  when  there  shall  be  mul 
titudes  of  such  preachers ;  when  great  numbers,  em 
bracing  the  whole  truth,  without  any  mixture  of  su 
perstition  or  error,  shall  speak  in  the  sublime  strains 
of  BOSSTIET,  with  the  energy  and  elevation  of  BOUEDA- 
LOUE,  and  with  the  insinuating  grace  and  melody  of 
MASSILLON. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PAKAGEAPHS. 

FROM     THE     AUTHOR'S     PRIVATE     JOURNALS. 

§  1.  To  do  good  to  men,  is  the  great  work  of  life ; 
to  make  them  true  Christians  is  the  greatest  good  we 
can  do  them.  Every  investigation  brings  us  round  to 
this  point.  Begin  here,  and  you  are  like  one  who 
strikes  water  from  a  rock  on  the  summits  of  the  moun 
tains  ;  it  flows  down  over  all  the  intervening  tracts  to 
the  very  base.  If  we  could  make  each  man  love  his 
neighbour,  we  should  make  a  happy  world.  The  true 
method  is  to  begin  with  ourselves,  and  so  to  extend 
the  circle  to  all  around  us.  It  should  be  perpetually 
in  our  minds. 

§  2.  Beneficence. — There  are  two  great  classes  of 
philanthropists,  namely,  those  who  devise  plans  of  be 
neficence,  and  those  who  execute  them.  If  we  cannot 
be  among  the  latter,  perhaps  we  may  be  among  the 
former.  Invention  is  more  creative  than  execution. 
Watt  has  done  more  for  mechanics  than  a  thousand 


420  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

steam-engine  makers.  The  devisors  of  good  may 
again  be  divided  into  those  who  devise  particular 
plans,  such  as  this  or  that  association  or  mode  of  ope 
ration,  and  those  who  discover  and  make  known  great 
principles.  The  latter  are  the  rarer  and  the  most  im 
portant.  Hence  a  man  who  never  stirs  out  of  his 
study  may  be  a  great  philanthropist,  if  he  employs 
himself  in  discovering  from  the  study  of  the  Scrip 
tures  and  the  study  of  human  nature,  those  laws  which 
originate  and  condition  all  effectual  endeavours  for 
human  good. 

§  3.  Byron. — I  have  been,  looking  into  a  dreadful 
book,  Morris's  life  of  Byron, — the  life  of  one  de 
bauchee  written  by  another.  It  is  instructive,  amidst 
all  its  impiety.  It  is  the  most  forcible  comment  I  ever 
read  on  that  divine  w^ord,  "  The  way  of  transgressors 
is  hard."  Voluptuary  as  he  was,  ever  sighing  after 
some  new  pleasure,  and  drinking  to  its  depth  the  cup 
of  worldly  and  sensual  enjoyment,  Byron  seems  to 
have  endured  little  less  than  a  hell  upon  earth.  Here 
I  read  in  awful  colours  the  tormenting  power  of  un 
controlled  selfishness.  Here  I  see  abject  ignorance 
of  all  religion  in  one  of  the  greatest  human  minds. 
Remorse  without  repentance,  and  self-contempt  with 
out  amendment,  are  dreadful  scourges.  From  coun 
try  to  country  he  fled,  but  he  carried  the  scorpion  with 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          421 

him.  His  later  works  are  only  the  disgorging  of 
tumultuous  thoughts  and  cruel  passions,  lust,  mortified 
pride,  and  malignity ;  as  if  he  would  outrage  the 
world,  even  at  the  expense  of  every  pang  in  his  own 
bosom.  Happy  the  poorest,  weakest  sufferer,  that 
believes  in  Christ ! 

§  4.  God  in  Nature. — Sweet  showers  about  sunrise. 
How  refreshing !  Methinks  we  have  not  books 
enow  which  connect  the  exercises  of  religion  with 
the  delights  of  external  scenery.  Though  an  infidel 
said  it,  I  assent  to  it  as  true,  that  I  have  found  no 
temple  so  inspiring  as  the  open  vault  of  heaven  and 
the  green  earth.  Every  thing  around  me  breathes  of 
divine  benignity.  The  sparrow  has  laid  her  young  in 
a  rose-tree  just  beside  my  door-sill,  another  has  built 
in  the  vine  by  the  woodhouse.  The  bluebirds  seem 
to  be  tenanting  the  house  I  prepared  for  them  over 
the  arbour,  and  I  am  looking  for  the  return  of  my 
wrens  to  their  lodge  above  the  swing.  The  indigo 
bird,  and  some  unknown  pied  bird  appear  among  my 
young  elms.  I  also  have  seen  a  dark  bird  with  a  dash 
of  crimson  on  the  back.  The  catbird  sings  almost 
all  day  in  the  large  cherry-tree  by  our  ice-house  ;  and 
in  the  orchard  just  beyond,  bobo'lincoln  indulges  in 
his  caprices,  morning,  noon,  and  night.  But  no  song 
so  affects  me  as  the  plaintive  note  of  the  robin,  heard  at 


422  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

a  distance  in  the  evening.  It  tells  of  solitude  and  care. 
It  is  such  a  strain  as,  were  I  a  bird,  I  could  not  choose 
but  sing  myself.  All  these  praise  God.  To  attend  to 
them,  and  note  their  proceedings  on  the  Lord's  day, 
need  not  trouble  the  strictest  Sabbatarian  ;  it  is  but  to 
paraphrase  and  illustrate  the  104th  psalm.  I  am  no 
Pantheist,  but  I  love  to  honour  a  God  in  nature,  in 
whom  all  that  is  has  life,  and  not  only  life,  but  being. 
"  The  meanest  flower  that  blows  has  power  to  raise, 
thoughts  in  me  that  lie  too  deep  for  tears."  Pansies 
have  called  forth  such  thoughts  to-day.  Blessed  be  God 
for  summer,  and  for  the  thousand,  thousand  varied 
manifestations  of  life  in  the  animal  and  vegetable 
world. 

§  5.  See  God  in  Nature. — When  the  prospects  of 
the  heavens  or  the  verdant  summer  earth  look  most 
beautiful  to  me,  I  most  think  of  God.  But  let  us  be 
careful  how  we  see  God  in  nature.  The  Pantheist 
sees  the  visible  phenomena  as  a  part  of  God.  This  is 
a  sort  of  Atheism.  The  poet  sees  beauty,  order,  the 
picturesque,  or  the  sublime,  and  this  he  makes  his 
God.  The  Christian  sees  in  the  glories  of  nature  not 
merely  the  effect  of  God's  hand,  but  its  presence  ;  not 
only  God's  work,  but  God  working.  He  not  only 
created  that  landscape  of  field,  wood,  and  orchard 
which  I  see  from  my  window,  but  he  upholds  it,  he 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          423 

gives  it  its  existence,  lie  causes  every  change,  at  every 
moment — at  every  moment  there  is  a  coming  forth  of 
his  attributes  into  action.  And  these  innumerable 
acts  are  each  of  them  a  display  of  some  perfection  ; 
each  is  divine.  I  behold  God  in  his  works,  I  do  not 
merely  see  a  mark  that  the  Creator  has  "been  there,  but 
a  token  that  he  is  there.  Just  as  when  I  hear  the 
footstep  of  my  dearest  friend  in  his  chamber,  I  know 
that  he  is  there  present. 

§  6.  On  the  late  cloudy  Weather. 

Clouds  on  clouds  have  long  been  here, 

Overhanging  all  our  sky ; 
Scarce  a  sunny  hour  did  peer 

Through  the  mantle  spread  on  high. 

Yet  we  know  the  sun  is  still 

Reigning  in  his  bridegroom  power, 

And  the  happy  instant  will 
Pour  his  radiance  through  the  shower. 

Then  the  tinted  promise-bow, 
Spanning  woods  and  meads,  shall  smile, 

Then  the  cornfields  brilliant  gloAv, 
If  meek  patience  wait  a  while. 

Nature  is  the  type  of  grace — 

Spirits  have  their  cloudy  time  ; 
'Tis,  alas !  our  present  case, 

While  we  wait  the  dawn  sublime. 


424:  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

Yet  in  darkness  we  will  hope, 

He  is  coming  who  is  Light, 
Though  we  may  disheartened  grope 

For  a  season — as  in  night — 

He  is  coining ;  lo !  his  beam 

Gilds  already  yonder  hill, 
Streaks  of  opening  clearness  seem 

The  horizon's  edge  to  fill. 

Come,  expected  brightness,  come, 

We  are  panting  for  thy  ray, 
Let  not  hopeless  grief  benumb 

Souls  that  do  thy  word  obey. 

Weeping  may  a  night  endure, 

Yet  the  morning  shall  be  joy  ; 
Trust  the  promise — it  is  sure, 

Hopeful  toil  be  thine  employ. 

He  who  loves  me  makes  my  day, 

Clouds  but  minister  his  will ; 
Christ  is  waiting  to  display 

Charms  that  every  wish  shall  fill. 

§  7.  Converse  with  God. — It  is  not  enough  to  know 
of  God  that  he  is,  or  even  what  lie  is,  unless  in  the 
latter  we  include  that  he  is  conversable  with  us,  that 
we  have  access  to  him,  that  we  may  commune  with 
him.  On  this  most  interesting  and  momentous  point, 
see  Howe's  "  Living  Temple."  The  persuasion  that  we 
can  really  hold  converse  with  God,  as  a  friend  with  a 


MISCELLANEOUS    PAKAGKAPHS.  425 

friend,  or  even  as  a  slave  with  a  sovereign,  is  one  of 
the  most  delightful  which  can  reveal  itself  to  a  human 
soul.  How  would  Socrates,  Plato,  Tully,  or  Seneca 
have  received  the  annunciation  !  A  great  part  of  reli 
gion  consists  in  seeking  and  maintaining  this  con 
verse. 

§  8.  God  is  the  Portion,  the  one  portion.  In  him 
is  rest.  Eead  on  this  a  Ivempis,  Leighton,  and  Fene- 
lon.  I  have  been  thinking  a  good  deal  lately  of  the 
sin  and  folly  of  seeking  happiness  in  any  thing  but 
God.  Every  other  object  we  must  seek  for  the  sake 
of  something  else,  but  God  for  the  sake  of  himself. 

§  9.  Writing  Boohs. — In  writing  a  book,  as  much 
as  any  thing  in  the  wTorld,  it  is  important  for  a  man 
to  be  himself,  to  be  unshackled,  to  act  out  his  own 
character.  Hence  not  always  good  to  take  the  advice 
of  one  of  a  different  richtung — it  chills.  A  plan  or 
schedule  or  programme  hinders  the  wrork,  quoad  genia- 
litat.  A  book  should  be  a  growth  rather  than  a  build 
ing.  The  most  taking  books  have  been  written  off 
hand.  There  is  too  little  u  abandon  "  in  my  writing  ; 
my  best  have  had  the  most — e.  g.  the  review  of 
Macaulay,  and  in  a  less  degree  the  review  of  Chal 
mers.*  The  best  things  are  those  which  do  not  come 
into  your  head  till  you  begin  to  write,  and  which 

*  In  Princeton  Review. 


426  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACIILNG. 

cannot,  therefore,  be  included  in  a  plan  made  before 
hand.  To  write  in  the  way  I  mean,  a  man  must  be  in 
earnest,  and  without  a  trammel ;  hence  every  degree 
and  kind  of  fiction  is  adverse.  The  novel,  the  poem, 
the  pretended  letter,  even  the  anonymous  one,  are 
unfavourable  to  this  perfect  freedom. 

§  10.  Be  caref  ul  for  Nothing.-— OUY -pleasures  and 
pains  are  often  trifles,  when  Providence  hangs  out 
greater  pleasures  and  greater  pains  just  before  us. 
Why  am  I  so  much  troubled  about  these  little  crosses 
or  disappointments  ?  They  will  come  and  be  over 
in  much  less  time  than  I  have  spent  in  carking  about 
them.  Time  and  oblivion  have  already  washed  out  a 
thousand  such  impressions  on  the  sandy  beach  of  my 
heart.  To  be  abased  is  to  be  happy.  A  large  propor 
tion  of  our  cares  w^ould  go,  if  pride  were  to  depart. 
Our  distress  after  failures  is  often  chagrin  as  to  what 
man  will  think  of  us,  rather  than  contrition  for  having 
offended  God. 

§  11.  How  shall  Mankind  ~be  made  Happy. — "What 
a  poor  pitiful  thing  do  the  little  niceties  and  elegan 
cies  of  science  and  letters  appear,  when  placed  by  the 
side  of  true  religious  and  philanthropic  wisdom.  I 
can  scarcely  look  with  patience  on  myself  or  others, 
spending  solid  days  on  petty  philosophy,  criticism, 
poetry  of  the  minor  sort,  belles-lettres,  or  on  botany, 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          427 

archseology,  antiquarianism,  or  any  of  these  things  in 
which  the  pedantry  of  learning  boasts  itself,  when  the 
great  question  is  trumpeted  in  our  ears,  how  shall 
mankind  le  made  happy  ?  When  a  man  has  attained 
middle  life,  he  ought  to  be  doing  something  towards 
the  solution  of  this  problem.  He  ought  to  be  in 
earnest.  I,  therefore,  respect  Channing  for  his  choice 
of  subjects,  though  not  always  for  his  way  of  treating 
them.  The  grand  problem  regards  the  application  of 
Christianity  to  the  progress  of  Society.  Nations  are 
tumnltuating  like  oceans.  Society  seems  like  to 
be  thrown  anew  into  the  crucible.  The  power  that  is 
to  order  the  future  mould  is  the  power  of  opinion. 
Unless  it  be  Truth,  all  must  go  wrong.  The  great 
thing  then  is  to  impregnate  the  existing  mass  with 
truth — moral  truth — divine  truth.  How  to  do  this, 
should  be  our  question.  Many  of  our  old  and  round 
about  methods  will  probably  have  to  be  given  up. 
They  stand  in  relation  to  the  measures  needed,  as  the 
tactics  of  old  Wurmser,  to  those  of  Napoleon.  We 
must  go  to  work  more  directly  than  heretofore.  And 
methinks  it  were  well  if  some  of  us  old-fashioned 
martinets  in  religion  and  literature,  could  cut  off  our 
pig-tails  and  work  away  in  the  dishabille  of  the  age. 
Do  so  we  must,  or  be  left  in  the  rear.  Learning  we 
want  indeed,  but  not  pedant-learning,  names  and  clas 
sifications,  but  good  living  truths,  such  as  lie  deep,  and 


428  THOUGHTS    ON    PliE ACHING. 

as  yet  unquarried  in  the  Book  of  Books,  but  which 
are  yet  to  be  brought  out  for  the  revolution  of  the 
world. 

§  12.  Against  /Solitude. — A  life  of  study  has 
always  appeared  to  me  an  unnatural  life.  Is  it  not 
better  to  converse  with  the  living  than  the  dead  ? 
Some  one  will  yet  have  to  write  a  book  on  the  excess 
of  literature.  The  ancient  Greek  wray  of  studying 
abroad,  in  the  Porch,  or  the  Academy,  on  the  Ilissus 
and  under  the  platanus,  among  the  haunts  of  man, 
was  better  for  the  health  both  of  body  and  mind. 
Recluse  habits  tend  to  sadness,  moroseness,  selfish 
ness,  timidity,  and  inaction.  The  mind  has  better 
play  in  aprico.  Collision  produces  scintillation  of 
genius,  and  proximity  of  friends  opens  a  gush  for  the 
affections.  The  early  Christians  seem  to  have  been 
out-of-door  people,  rehearsing  to  one  another  the  wis 
dom  which  had  been  given  to  them  orally.  Lessons 
which  go  from  mouth  to  mouth,  take  a  portable  shape, 
because  dense,  pithy,  and  apothegmatic  :  such  are  the 
proverbs  of  all  ages.  "We  are  made  for  action,  and 
life  is  too  short  for  us  to  be  always  preparing.  A 
breath  of  pure  air  seems  to  oxygenate  the  intellect, 
and  the  best  thoughts  of  the  scholar  are  sometimes 
during  the  half  hour  of  twilight,  when  he  has  laid 
aside  his  books,  and  taken  his  walking-stick.  Then 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          429 

lie  is  more  of  a  man,  feels  his  fellowship  not  only  with 
nature,  but  with  his  kind.  I  sometimes  wish  I  had 
been  less  a  reader  of  books  ;  that  I  had  exercised  my 
prerogative  over  the  beasts  of  the  field,  mastered 
horses,  or  traversed  countries  as  a  reckless  pedestrian. 
Ever  turning  the  thoughts  inward  produces  corrosion. 
"We  should  have  something,  it  is  true,  within,  but  it 
should  tend  outwards.  He  has  not  fulfilled  his  voca 
tion,  who  has  spent  his  score  of  years  in  solitary  de 
light  over  ancient  authors,  and  eaten  his  morsel  alone. 
Gray,  with  all  Greece  in  his  mind,  pacing  up  and 
down  the  green  alleys  of  a  college  walk,  was  but  half 
the  man  he  should  have  been.  Horace  Walpole,  re 
velling  in  the  virtu  of  Strawberry  Hill,  degenerated 
into  a  mere  toyman,  and  filled  the  most  elegant  letters 
extant  with  the  matching  of  old  chairs  and  Sevres 
china.  It  is  to  let  the  mind  run  to  seed  in  a  corner ; 
transplantation  is  necessary.  To  live  for  others  is  the 
dictate  of  religion.  And  what  to  do  for  others  is  best 
done  by  actual  approaches,  face  to  face,  eye  looking 
into  eye,  and  hand  pressing  hand.  It  is  not  enough  to 
say,  this  or  that  recondite  pursuit  may  turn  to  some 
body's  advantage.  So  it  may,  if  you  live  to  be  a 
Methuselah  or  a  Lamech.  But  your  ever-increasing 
stock  should  not  be  all  hoarded.  The  sum  is,  go  forth 
among  mankind.  Lay  aside  the  cowl,  and  make  one 
of  the  great  company.  Every  clay  renew  the  elec- 


430  THOUGHTS    ON    PEE  ACHING. 

trie  toucli  with  the  common  mind.  Fall  into  the  cir 
cle,  to  give  and  take  good  influences.  It  is  not  too 
late  if  your  heart  is  not  ossified  to  the  core.  I  hope 
it  is  not  so  bad  as  that  in  Tally's  phrase,  locus  ubi 
stomachus  fait,  concaluit.  It  is  worth  an  effort.  The 
air  of  a  saloon  or  a  market-place  will  do  you  good,  and 
you  will  gain  something  from  brushing  the  crowd  in 
a  thoroughfare. 

§  13.  Dying  Evidences. — Between  sleep  and  wake, 
these  thoughts  came  to  me.  "When  I  am  dying,  what 
will  certify  to  me  these  truths  of  Christianity,  which 
are  my  support  ?  Suppose  I  doubt  them.  "What  will 
prove  them  to  me  in  that  brief  urgent  trial  ?  Can  I 
then  go  over  all  the  evidences  ?  No  !  the  truth  will 
be  in  me  self-evidencing — the  same  truths  which  I 
now  have  in  notion  I  will  then  have  in  faith.  That 
which  is  now  the  matter  of  opinion  and  probable  judg 
ment  will  be  transformed  into  real  truth — faith  rather 
than  knowledge. 

§  14.  Pain. — When  a  bodily  pain  occurs,  every 
man  who  has  any  sense  of  religion  feels  that  it  is  his 
duty  to  acquiesce  in  it,  as  sent  of  God,  for  some  end 
unknown  as  yet.  But  the  feeling  is  not  so  prompt, 
when  a  mental  pain  arises,  such  as  is  produced  by  a 
fear,  an  insult,  an  injury,  or  the  like.  Yet  the  latter, 
no  less  than  the  former,  are  under  the  disposal  of  God, 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          431 

and   form   a  part  of  his  providential  arrangement. 
We  should  in  such  cases  feel  this. 

§  15.  Blessings  of  Trial. — The  trials  which  befall 
us,  are  the  very  trials  which  we  need.  The  little  daily 
excoriations  of  temper  speedily  heal  themselves,  but 
when  the  pain  lasts,  they  have  an  errand  to  accom 
plish,  and  they  accomplish  it.  These,  as  well  as 
greater  sufferings  are  ordered.  They  must  be  submit 
ted  to  with  patience,  resignation,  and  meekness,  and  if 
they  enable  us  to  see  ourselves,  and  gain  a  victory 
over  our  pride,  they  are  of  great  value.  Instead  of 
vain  and  impotent  wishes  to  fly  from  them,  or  the 
circumstances  which  occasion  them,  it  is  the  part  of 
manly  virtue  to  fear  and  forbear,  and  by  grace  to  wax 
stronger  and  stronger. 

§  16.  Loolt  forward. — To  look  forward  is  better 
than  to  look  back,  and  this  is  as  true  of  literature  as 
of  life.  How  long  has  the  world  been  looking  back 
on  the  remains  of  the  classics,  and  how  slowly  did 
modern  Europe  disentangle  itself  from  the  perplexities 
of  pagan  mythology.  Dante  and  Ariosto,  Chaucer 
and  Milton  are  all  encumbered  with  it.  Goethe  tells 
us  how  he  came  to  give  up  all  the  pantheon  but  Amor 
and  Luna.  Another  school  reverts  to  a  later  era,  and 
with  an  antiquarian  spirit  endeavours  to  live  over  the 
baronial  or  the  conventual  life  of  the  middle  ages. 


432  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

But  literature,  to  have  a  true  life,  must  adapt  itself  to 
the  age  in  which  it  exists,  and  breathe  forth  the  very 
spirit  of  the  time.  And  as  Christianity,  now  opening 
011  the  world  with  a  new  power,  is  the  grand  element 
of  the  age,  our  literature  is  Christian.  It  should  take 
its  post  above  the  common  level,  and  look  forward 
into  the  great  tracts  which  are  opened  by  the  advance 
of  science  and  civilization,  and  on  which  the  sun  of 
prophecy  throws  a  cheering  light.  I  often  think  we 
should  gain,  if  men  of  letters,  when  somewhat  pos 
sessed  of  what  has  been  achieved  in  past  ages,  would 
close  the  ponderous  volume,  and  take  wing  on  their 
proper  pinions,  into  the  inviting  regions  of  futurity. 

§  IT.  Influence  of  OUT  Actions. — With  a  mighty 
but  imperceptible  influence,  divine  truth  is  going  on, 
working  in  the  world  the  change  which  has  been  pre 
dicted.  Every  church  that  is  founded,  every  soul  that 
is  converted,  every  Bible  that  is  printed,  every  minis 
ter  that  is  ordained,  and  every  sermon  that  is  preached, 
tend  towards  this  result.  Nothing  is  more  certain 
than  the  result ;  but  as  it  is '  to  be  accomplished  by 
free  beings,  under  the  influence  of  motives,  it  is 
highly  important  that  we  watch  over  all  our  actions, 
as  tending  to  this  result.  Our  talent  is  not  for  the 
napkin  or  the  earth,  but  for  trade  and  increase.  The 
very  formation  of  our  individual  character  tends  in  a 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          433 

certain  degree  to  the  great  result.  Every  example 
and  every  word  of  ours  lias  a  bearing  on  the  same ; 
all  we  do,  in  our  most  careless  hours,  is  so  much  to 
help  or  to  hinder.  ~No  wrong  action  is  neutral. 
Could  a  single  individual  stand  forth  all  his  life  em 
bodying  some  great  principle,  his  influence  would  be 
felt  on  future  generations. 

§  18.  Musing. — Few  habits  are  more  injurious 
than  musing,  which  differs  from  thinking,  as  pacing 
one's  chamber  does  from  walking  abroad.  The  mind 
learns  nothing,  and  is  not  strengthened,  but  weak 
ened  ;  returning  perpetually  over  the  same  barren 
track.  Where  the  thoughts  are  sombre,  the  evil  is 
doubly  great,  and  not  only  time  and  vigour  are 
squandered,  but  melancholy  becomes  fixed.  It  is 
really  a  disease,  and  the  question,  how  it  should  be 
treated,  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  anthropology. 
The  subject  of  this  evil  is  generally  aware  of  it.  lie 
is  conscious  that  the  longer  he  continues  in  these 
trains  of  thought,  the  less  able  he  is  to  fly  from  them ; 
that  the  troubles  on  which  he  ponders  grow  greater 
with  his  thoughts.  But  the  mistake  into  which  the 
sufferer  commonly  falls,  is  that  of  supposing  himself 
able  to  throw  off  the  painful  burden  by  a  process  of 
counter-thinking.  Nothing  can  be  vainer.  It  is  but 
floundering  in  the  same  slough.  The  only  possible 
19 


434  THOUGHTS  ON  PLEACHING. 

escape  is  by  cutting  off  the  whole  train — and  the 
more  abruptly  the  better.  Whatever  does  this  is 
good.  Sometimes  even  a  new  wave  of  trouble  comes 
in  with  happy  effect,  to  obliterate  the  old  one.  Ac 
tive  employment  is  still  better,  indeed  the  best  of  all 
cures  for  spleen — "  fling  but  a  stone,  the  monster 
dies."  The  thing  needed  is  energy  to  put  forth  this 
effort — power  to  originate  a  new  series  of  action — 
motive  to  abandon  the  painful  objects,  which  exercise 
a  mysterious  fascination,  leaving  the  patient  in  the 
belief,  that  some  great  evil  will  ensue,  if  even  for  a 
season  he  stops  thinking  about  them.  To  counteract 
this  last  hallucination  is  one  of  the  main  points.  The 
sufferer  must  settle  it  in  his  mind,  that  no  possible 
good  can  arise  from  persevering  in  meditation  on  the 
evil :  that  no  possible  evil  can  ensue,  if  he  never 
thinks  of  it  again.  What  a  blessed  thing  would  it  be 
if  the  melancholy  man  could  have  an  infusion  of  dare 
devil  recklessness  for  a  little  while,  and  if,  instead  of 
lashing  himself  to  the  helm  in  the  long  dark  night  of 
storm,  he  could  for  once  leave  the  vessel  a  little  to  be 
the  sport  of  the  winds.  There  is  no  danger  of  his 
going  too  far  in  this,  and,  therefore,  he  may  be  safely 
advised  to  it.  Caution  and  foresight  are  morbid  and 
unreasonable  when  they  are  directed  to  objects  beyond 
their  sphere,  and  when  they  are  for  ever  at  work, 
without  any  results.  How  true,  how  wise,  how  philo- 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          435 

sophical,  how  beneficent,  is  the  advice  of  our  compas 
sionate  Eedeemer,  "  Take  no  thought  for  the  mor 
row."  How  self-evidencing  its  wisdom  !  how  certain 
a  cure  for  the  disease  !  Yet  how  difficult  of  self-ap 
plication. 

§  19.  True  Poetry. — How  can  poetry  ever  reach 
its  acme  till  its  theme  is  religion  !  !N"ot  the  outward, 
but  the  inward.  Milton,  great  as  he  is,  has  not 
touched  the  greatest  themes  of  religion.  "Watts,  and 
"Wesley,  and  Howe  have  done  so,  but  not  with  the 
height  of  poetic  afflatus.  I  think  the  world  yet  waits 
to  behold  a  Christian  poet  of  the  highest  order. 
There  never  was  a  falser  notion  than  that  of  great 
earthen  Johnson,  that  religion  was  not  a  fit  theme  for 
the  highest  poetry.  Yet  I  must  acknowledge  that,  to 
my  mind,  it  exists  only  in  hypothesis.  If  we  could 
perfectly  understand  the  Hebrew  of  the  prophets,  we 
should  know  what  it  means.  A  mind  loosened  from 
all  earthly  regards,  and  singing  unto  God,  would  pro 
duce  it.  Such  a  mind  must  be  so  rapt  as  to  forget 
all  that  belongs  to  human  praise.  The  heathen 
sometimes  sang  thus  to  their  false  gods  ;  why  do  not 
Christians  sing  thus  to  Christ  ?  What  greater  inspi 
ration  do  they  wait  for  ? 

§  20.  Day  Thought.— The  People.— Every  shadow 
is  a  shadow  of  something. 


4:36  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

The  cry  which  echoes  from  so  many  writers,  and 
even  sects,  in  behalf  of  the  people,  and  the  poor, 
means  something.  There  are  prescriptive  evils  which 
have  come  down  for  ages — yes,  for  ages !  Think  of 
it !  What  Owen,  St.  Simon,  and  Fourier  aim  at,  is  a 
real  desideratum,  but  their  way  is  wrong. 

I  pity,  I  love  the  poor,  and  it  goes  to  my  heart  to 
hear  the  scoffing  way  in  which  they  are  often  treated. 
Even  the  little  wretches  who  plague  everybody  with 
their  white  mice,  awaken  my  affection.  This  is  not 
the  world's  philosophy.  May  I  never  learn  philoso 
phy  from  the  world ! 

§  21.  Religion  as  Excitement. — Religion  is  just  the 
excitement  which  many  men  need  to  make  them 
happy.  There  are  apertures  in  the  human  soul  which 
nothing  else  can  fill.  The  soul  was  made  for  this. 
We  look  back,  with  a  sigh  to  the  animation  of  child- 

O 

hood,  and  even  to  the  passion  of  youth.  The  craving 
for  excitement  leads  us,  in  manhood,  to  pleasure,  to 
business,  to  gain,  to  the  chase  for  power.  All  these 
are  successively,  and  often  too  late,  discovered  to  be 
insufficient.  In  such  a  state  of  disappointment,  what 
a  pearl  is  found  by  him  who  believes  in  Christ !  Re 
ligion  surpasses  all  other  excitements  in  this,  that  it 
is  an  excitement  of  love,  and  love  is  pleasurable,  es 
sentially.  It  exceeds  all  other  love,  in  this,  that  its 


MISCELLANEOUS   PAKAGKAPHS.  437 

object  is  infinite.  'Till  men  learn  to  love  God,  they 
have  powers  which  are  altogether  latent.  As  if  cer 
tain  cells  of  the  lungs  should  never  be  filled  by  a  per 
fect  inhalation. 

§  22.  Books  and  Solitude. — Much  may  be  learned 
without  books.  To  read  always  is  not  the  way  to  be 
wTise.  The  knowledge  of  those  who  are  not  book 
worms  has  a  certain  air  of  health  and  robustness.  I 
never  deal  with  books  all  day  without  being  the 
worse  for  it.  Living  teachers  are  better  than  dead. 
There  is  magic  in  the  voice  of  living  wisdom.  Iron 
sharpeneth  iron.  Part  of  every  day  should  be  spent 
in  society.  Learning  is  discipline  ;  but  the  heart 
must  be  disciplined  as  well  as  the  head  ;  and  only  by 
intercourse  with  our  fellows  can  the  affections  be  dis 
ciplined.  Bookishness  implies  solitude  ;  and  solitude 
is  apt  to  produce  ill  weeds :  melancholy,  selfishness, 
moroseness,  suspicion,  and  fear.  To  go  abroad  is, 
therefore,  a  Christian  duty.  I  never  wrent  from  my 
books  to  spend  an  hour  with  a  friend,  however  hum 
ble,  without  receiving  benefit.  I  never  left  the  soli 
tary  contemplation  of  a  subject  in  order  to  compare 
notes  on  it  with  a  friend,  without  finding  my  ideas 
clarified.  Ennui  is  not  common  where  men  properly 
mingle  the  contemplative  with  the  active  life.  The 
natural  and  proper  time  for  going  abroad  is  the  even- 


4:38  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

ing.  Such  intercourse  should  be  encouraged  in  one's 
own  house  as  well  as  out  of  it.  Solitary  study 
breeds  inhospitality  :  we  do  not  like  to  be  in 
terrupted.  Every  one,  however  wearisome  as  a 
guest,  should  be  made  welcome,  and  entertained  cor 
dially.  Women  surpass  men  in  the  performance  of 
these  household  duties ;  chiefly  because  they  are  all 
given  to  habits  of  solitary  study.  The  life  which 
Christ  lived  among  men  is  a  pattern  of  what  inter 
course  should  be  for  the  good  of  society.  I  have  a 
notion  that  the  multiplication  of  books  in  our  day, 
which  threatens  to  overleap  all  bounds,  will,  in  the 
first  instance,  produce  great  evils,  and  will  afterwards 
lead  men  back  to  look  on  oral  communication  as  a 
method  of  diffusing  knowledge  which  the  press  has 
unduly  superseded  ;  and  that  this  will  some  day  break 
on  the  world  with  the  freshness  of  a  new  discovery. 

§  23.  Daily  Conflict. — Our  resignation  and  our 
faith  must  not  be  merely  general,  but  particular.  It 
is  in  special  instances  we  are  put  upon  our  trial.  We 
must  not  say,  I  could  endure  another  sort  of  vexation, 
but  not  this.  I  could  bear  a  different  annoyance,  but 
not  this.  This  is  precisely  the  one  which  God  assigns 
to  us,  and,  perhaps,  for  the  very  reason  that  we  are  so 
intolerant  of  it. 

The  duty  of  humble  submission  is  as  imperative 


MISCELLANEOUS   PAliAGUAPHS.  439 

under  this  as  under  any  other  trial.  The  privilege  of 
faith  is  as  great  under  this  as  under  any  other.  The 
promises  of  the  Gospel  are  not  excluded  from  this 
case.  Could  we  look  into  the  reasons  of  state  in  the 
mediatorial  kingdom,  we  should  see  that  we  are 
visited  with  this  annoyance  rather  than  any  other  for 
a  definite  purpose,  and  that  one  of  infinite  grace. 
When  this  purpose  is  accomplished,  it  will  assuredly 
be  removed.  But  to  bear  it  is  better  than  to  have  it 
removed.  True  wisdom  counsels  us  not  to  shrink 
from  the  trial,  but  to  face  it,  in  God's  strength. 
Great  fruits  are  reaped  in  this  field.  We  account  a 
man  cowardly  who  shrinks  from  an  enemy  in  natural 
things.  We  should  apply  this  to  our  daily  mortifica 
tions  and  distresses.  It  would  be  a  noble  habit  of 
soul,  if  we  could  bring  ourselves  to  regard  every  oc 
currence  of  this  sort  as  a  means  of  exercising  our 
graces,  and  gaming  new  strength. 

§  24.  o  MiKpofcoa-fjios. — The  ancients  talked  of  the 
microcosm  •  the  little  world  within.  We  might  have 
done  better  than  disuse  the  pregnant  phrase.  We 
measure  things  too  much  by  a  material  scale.  There 
is  a  scale,  on  which  Niagara,  or  a  universe  of  matter, 
as  such,  measures  no  more  than  a  sigh  or  an  aspira 
tion.  The  world  loithin  its  is  great.  Revolutions 
take  place  there.  It  is  mind  that  moves  matter. 


44:0  THOUGHTS   ON   PEEACHING. 

Who  can  tell  the  moment  of  one  thought,  of  a  Napo 
leon  or  a  Pascal !  So  in  comparing  two  men,  we 
compare  only  the  outside  :  we  cannot  sound  the 
cavern  within.  So  of  depravity  :  a  man  says  he  per 
forms  his  duty,  and  is  not  a  sinner;  God  will  not 
punish  him.  But  God  sees  a  wrorld  within  him,  which 
is  godless.  There  the  mind  is  everlasting. 

§  25.  «  Thy  Word  is  Truth:7 

Poor  twinkling  man !  thy  ray  can  little  pierce 

The  scanty  circle  of  thy  nearest  cloud, 

Far  less  the  spaces  of  infinity. 

Let  modest  Reason  fold  her  wing  and  learn ! 

See  in  the  darksome  void  a  guiding  beam, 

A  glimmering  point  at  first,  a  star,  a  sun — 

'Tis  light  from  higher  worlds  to  guide  thee  on. 

Ten  thousand  volumes,  laboured  by  the  wise 

Of  other  ages,  cumber  still  our  shelves, 

Vex  all  our  schools,  and  fill  the  roll  of  fame. 

In  all  how  mean  a  portion  that  is  true, 

Save  what  is  borrowed  from  the  Sacred  "Word. 

There,  in  few  sentences  is  writ  the  lore 

Which  king  and  prophet,  master,  priest,  and  sage, 

Toiled  for  in  vain,  and  died  obscure  and  lost. 

Let  me  hang  breathless  on  the  page  divine ! 

Here  ends  my  quest,  for  God  hath  spoken  here. 

!N"one  can  reject,  improve,  or  wrest ; 

None  need  discover,  for  the  end  is  found. 

Interpret,  ponder,  practise,  and  believe, 

This  thy  sole  task — be  humble  and  be  wise. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         441 

"While  others  search  all  nature  to  explore 
Her  treasured  secrets,  finding  thus  at  best 
Only  some  laws  of  this  our  lower  state, 
And  feeble  inklings  of  the  world  divine, — 
My  soul  contented  shall  the  record  view 
Of  God's  own  deeds  of  old,  and  gifts  of  love, 
And  ample  promise,  and  foreshadowing  sign, 
And  gaze  upon  the  bright  and  lovely  form 
Of  the  Messiah,  God  incarnate,  given 
To  image  forth  the  Lord  invisible. 

§  26.  Modes  of  Self . — How  hard,  even  on  questions 
touching  the  honour  of  God  and  the  purity  of  his 
church,  to  keep  out  self !  How  hard  to  be  willing  to 
appear  to  others  what  we  are  to  ourselves,  no  more, 
no  less  !  In  regard  to  ignorance,  indecision,  vacilla 
tion,  &c.,  we  wear  a  mask.  "We  often  through  pride 
affect  the  very  qualities  which  we  know  we  want,  and 
over  the  want  of  which  we  secretly  mourn.  It  is  hard 
to  say  how  far  a  man  should  go  in  keeping  his  own 
frailties  secret.  But  silence  is  often  safe.  A  debate 
arises  ;  we  grow  warm,  we  take  positions,  we  stick  to 
them.  After  thoughts  make  us  doubt  whether  we 
have  not  gone  too  far ;  but  we  act  Pilate's  part ; 
Quod  scripsi,  scripsi.  This  pride  must  be  brought 
low.  Truth  must  triumph.  Suppose  we  lose ;  very 
well.  Truth  gains.  Our  character  is  in  God's  hands. 
If  we  do  his  will,  he  will  take  care  of  our  good  name. 

So  many  things  commonly  received  seem  to  me  to 
19* 


4:4:2  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

have  no  ground  in  the  Scriptures  that  I  often  tremble. 
Then  again  certain  things  which  I  have  got  out  of  the 
mine  myself,  seem  so  plain  and  firm  that  my  soul  re 
poses  on  them.  Hence,  the  more  I  go  to  the  word  it 
self,  the  freer  from  shaking. 

§  27.  How  to  view  Nature. — The  work  of  nature, 
to  be  viewed  aright,  should  be  viewed  under  the 
cr^eo-t?  under  which  the  inspired  saints  viewed  it.  But 
this  is  opposite  to  that  of  the  Pantheist,  who  looks  on 
nature,  and  as  his  soul  expands  with  a  philosophic  or 
poetic  admiration,  lets  his  reverence  terminate  on  the 
(frawcopevov,  as  a  divine  development.  Not  so  David : 
"  Praise  ye  HIM,  sun  and  moon ;  praise  him,  all  ye 
stars  of  light.  Praise  him,  ye  heaven  of  heavens, 
and  ye  waters,  that  be  above  the  heavens.  Let  them 
praise  JEHOVAH  ;  for  he  commanded,  and  they  were 
created." 

§  28.  Apothegms  for  the  time : 

(1.)  Every  evil  that  befalls  is  deserved  :  but  every 
evil  is  ordered  in  covenant  love. 

(2.)  "With  what  is  past,  beyond  amendment,  we 
have  nothing  to  do  but  to  repent  and  submit. 

(3.)  Pride  being  one  of  your  greatest  ills,  must  be 
slain  :  and  what  mortifies  it  is  a  real,  unspeakable 
good. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          443 

(4.)  Man's  judgment  of  us  is  a  mere  nothing ; 
God's  judgment  of  us  is  of  infinite  moment. 

(5.)  It  is  idle  and  wicked  to  resist  the  will  of  God. 
(6.)  God  has  never  forsaken  :  He  never  will. 

§  29.  Thoughts  on  reading  Kant : 

(1.)  How  little  the  body  and  essence  of  our  phi 
losophy  of  life  is  affected  by  such  speculations  ! 

(2.)  They  are  ever-varying  from  age  to  age,  and 
they  determine  nothing. 

(3.)  The  best  light  in  which  they  can  be  received, 
is  as  an  intellectual  luxury. 

(4.)  They  foster  a  dreamy  disposition,  and  dis 
qualify  for  the  business  of  life. 

(5.)  True  wisdom  tends  to  the  happiness  of  the 
race.  It  is  the  science  of  philanthropy. 

(6.)  Let  me  honour  those  forms  of  truth  which 
tend  constantly  and  directly  to  elevate  the  mass  of 
men,  and  lessen  human  misery. 

(7.)  Consider  the  teachings  of  Christ  as  the  incar 
nate  wisdom  ;  in  regard  to  its  beneficence.  His  ac 
tion  and  his  precepts  are  simple,  plain,  and  popular ; 
but  behind  them  lie  the  profoundest  principles. 

(8.)  The  more  conversant  you  are  with  real  dis 
tress,  the  more  you  will  escape  that  which  is  imagi 
nary. 


THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

30.  The  Scriptures. 

Guideless  and  darkling;  Oh,  how  poor 
Is  man !  forsaken  and  impure, 
He  cannot  for  a  day,  an  hour, 
Go  safe,  without  superior  power. 
Away,  ye  false  lights  of  an  age, 
"When  pride  enveloped  every  sage. 
The  garden  where  Platonic  lore 
Its  honeyed  current  once  did  pour ; 
The  Porch  of  Zeno,  and  the  walk 
Where  once  the  Stagyrite  did  talk ; 
The  haunts  of  Epicurus — all 
Are  desert,  and  to  ruin  fall. 
Nor  could  their  lordly  patrons  show 
The  way  of  life  they  could  not  know. 
In  vain,  bewildered,  o'er  their  page 
I  hang,  my  sorrow  to  assuage. 
An  endless  guessing  is  the  best 
They  give,  to  put  my  doubts  at  rest. 
A  truth,  half  seen,  may  twinkle  far, 
As  murky  evenings  show  a  star, 
But  in  their  most  meridian  light 
There  glimmers  but  a  Greenland  night. 
The  hour-glass  notes  the  noon  of  day, 
The  dial  owns  the  sun  away. 
From  these  conjectures,  lo!  I  turn 
To  sources  which,  while  sceptics  spurn, 
I  see,  I  feel,  I  know,  are  fraught 
With  wisdom,  by  a  Saviour  taught. 
I  hail  thee,  sacred  volume,  then, 
Product  of  many  a  burning  pen, 
By  sage,  and  seer,  and  martyr  driven, 
To  picture  forth  the  charms  of  heaven. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          445 

§  31.  Maxims : 

(1.)  He  is  too  busy,  who  is  too  busy  to  be  kind. 

(2.)  Nothing  is  cheaper  than  kind  looks  and  kind 
words  ;  but  nothing  is  dearer. 

(3.)  What  we  suffer  from  another's  injury,  teaches 
us  our  own. 

(4.)  Half  humility  and  half  meekness  will  not  an 
swer  ;  be  meek  and  humble,  and  you  conquer. 

(5.)  Our  trials  are  in  a  multitude  of  cases  such  as 
produce  mortification  rather  than  grief.  These  are 
trials  of  our  pride,  and  they  are  good  for  us,  though 
painful  to  the  flesh. 

§  32.  Goethe. — I  have  just  finished  a  reperusal  of 
Goethe's  Autobiography.  It  reaches  to  1775,  i.  e.  to 
his  26th  year.  To  many  persons  the  book  is  dull ;  to 
many  it  would  be  injurious  ;  to  me  it  has  been  deeply 
interesting.  It  is  a  frank  development  of  his  thinking 
and  feeling  during  the  formation  period  ;  and  in  the 
bad  parts  I  see  myself  over  again.  Goethe  is  not  an 
amiable  character.  He  seems  to  have  looked  on  him 
self  as  on  a  great  development,  wonderfully  working 
from  day  to  day,  by  a  kind  of  fatality,  or  rather  by 
an  irresistible  nisus.  He  lets  every  thing  go  on,  care 
less  whether  it  be  good  or  evil ;  himself  being  the 
phenomenon,  which  to  inspect,  is  the  business  of  his 
life.  Therefore  there  is  no  compunction  about  his 


4:46  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

worst  works  ;  and  his  apology  for  "Werther,  is  as  if 
one  apologized  for  a  viper — a  natural  curiosity,  which 
must  be  as  it  is.  -  Goethe  had  two  grand  defects — 
want  of  conscience,  and  want  of  benevolence.  Hence 
his  great  mind,  exquisite  taste,  and  amazing  erudi 
tion,  under  the  fostering  patronage  of  an  Augustas 
Court,  and  acting  through  a  literary  life,  longer  than 
Yoltaire's,  resulted  in  nothing  which  tends  to  make 
the  world  wiser  or  better.  His  whim,  whatever  it 
was,  became  embodied  in  prose  or  verse.  It  was  not 
argument  settling  truth,  or  goodness  arriving  at  be 
neficence,  but  genius  and  taste,  revelling  in  their  own 
development. 

His  faithlessness  in  love,  his  wassail,  his  darker 
excesses  dimly  set  forth,  his  disregard  of  friends,  his 
errantry  and  abandon,  are  detailed  with  coolness,  and 
without  contrition,  even  in  his  old  age. 

It  is  interesting  to  study  the  manner  in  which  his 
youthful  melancholy,  of  which  both  "Werther  and 
Faust  are  symptoms,  was  sloughed  off,  and  how  the 
almost  Chinese  sang-froid  of  his  serene  manhood  su 
pervened. 

In  religion  he  was  a  hopeless  infidel.  If  neither 
Lavater  nor  the  saintly  Mademoiselle  von  Klettenberg 
could  win  his  youthful  mind,  there  could  be  little 
hope  for  him  in  mature  life.  All  that  he  says  about 
theology  and  the  Bible,  is  a  melancholy  proof  that 


MISCELLANEOUS    TAKAGKAPIIS.  447 

the  greatest  genius,  when  intellectual  pride  leads  him 
away  from  God's  revelation,  plunges  deeper  and 
deeper  into  self-contradiction.  To  me  Goethe  seems 
as  little  a  believer  as  Yoltaire.  "Without  the  persiflage 
and  venom  of  the  Frenchman,  he  is  as  godless.  Since 
his  death,  the  extreme  Hegelians,  and  "  Young  Ger 
many,"  as  represented  by  Heine,  have  shown  to  what 
his  principles  lead.  Moral  evil,  as  such,  seems  not 
to  exist  for  them.  Sin,  in  their  vocabulary,  is  a 
mere  specific  form.  The  beautiful,  even  in  morals, 
they  recognize,  not,  however,  "morally,  but  sestheti- 
cally. 

§  33.  John  Howe. — A  little  reading  in  pages  of 
great  thought  will  sometimes  set  one  thinking,  as  if 
by  a  happy  contagion,  or  as  the  sight  of  ten  prophets 
caused  Saul  to  prophecy.  Such  pages  are  those  of 
John  Howe.  Do  not  go  to  them  when  you  are  gay, 
and  wish  to  skirn  the  surface.  Do  not  search  in  them 
for  sentences,  brilliant  quaintnesses,  or  the  sacred 
mirth  that  sparkles  in  Gurnall  or  Flavel.  Howe 
moves  heavily  and  strikes  out  lengthily  in  a  medium 
of  resisting  density,  but  then  it  is  an  ocean ;  and  if 
you  accompany  him,  he  will  lead  you  to  depths  which 
contain  secrets  unknown  to  those  who  play  above. 
His  argumentation  is  like  none  other.  It  throws 
off  the  common  habiliments  of  the  school-logic,  and 


4:48  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

girds  itself  for  a  less  regular  but  more  athletic  con 
test.  "Wait  upon  him,  and  he  will  reward  you  with 
abundant  spoils. 

Sometimes  Howe  rises  to  flights  more  sublime  than 
those  even  of  his  great  brother  Puritans.  Less  terse 
than  Bates,  less  polemic  than  Owen,  less  pathetic  than 
Baxter,  he  is  more  philosophical,  original,  profound, 
and  impressive  than  all  these.  Especially  does  he  com 
mand  our  admiration  and  love,  when  he  touches  his 
favourite  theme,  the  unity  of  Christian  experience, 
as  above  the  party  differences  of  all  the  sects.  How 
mean  the  squabbles  of  Christianity  appear  under  the 
strokes  of  his  overwhelming  sarcasm  !  How  we  gixnv 
ashamed  of  our  Shibboleths,  when  he  takes  us  up 
from  the  fords  of  Jordan,  to  the  top  of  Pisgah,  and 
shows  us  the  goodly  prospect  of  a  united  church. 

It  was  eminently  his  province  to  disparage  and 
depreciate  worldly  things,  without  one  shade  of  mel 
ancholy.  The  very  dimness  of  this  life  is  produced 
by  the  effulgence  which  he  shows  in  another. 

§  34:.  On  Reading  the  Epistles. — Having  this  day 
read,  without  note  or  comment,  a  great  deal  in  the 
epistles,  I  have  endeavoured  to  open  my  mind  to  their 
genuine  impressions,  and  am  much  impressed  with 
the  result. 

(1).  The  absence  of  every  thing  that  savours  of 


MISCELLANEOUS    PARAGKAPIIS.  449 

the  ritualism  of  the  Oxonian  school.  No  stress  is 
laid  on  priests,  altars,  ceremonies,  or  even  sacraments. 
It  is  wonderful  how  largely  sacraments  figure  in  mod 
ern  liturgies,  and  how  little  in  the  New  Testament, 
which  contains  not  even  the  word. 

(2.)  The  intense  supranaturalism  of  the  New  Tes 
tament  writers.  Every  good  thing  is  from  above. 
Calling,  faith,  love,  joy,  all  are  of  grace,  and  all  of 
the  Spirit.  The  communication  is  perpetually  alluded 
to,  as  a  matter  of  fact  and  experience.  Early  Chris 
tians  lived  in  a  heavenly  atmosphere,  and  felt  that  by 
the  grace  of  God  they  were  what  they  were. 

(3.)  The  heavenly  ethics  of  the  New  Testament. 
Trust,  love,  patience,  courtesy,  meekness,  forbearance, 
gentleness,  long-suffering,  forgiveness,  hospitality,  hu 
mility  ;  these  are  what  they  felt  and  recommended. 
The  power  of  Christianity  was  in  these  things.  Be 
lievers  lived  in  a  tender  love  one  to  another.  The 
world  saw  it,  and  were  reproved  and  attracted. 

(4r.)  The  attachment  of  saints  to  the  person  of  Je 
sus.  He  was  not  an  abstraction.  He  was  known  of 
them,  as  one  who  had  recently  been  among  them,  who 
had  left  them  only  for  a  season,  and  who  was  still 
within  reach  ;  a  priest  abiding  continually,  and  ever 
living  to  make  intercession  for  them. 

§  35.  One  Truth. — He  who  sets  one  great  truth 
afloat  in  the  world,  serves  his  generation. 


450  THOUGHTS  ON  PKEACHING. 

§  36.  Central  Truths.  —  ~No  truth,  can  be  unimpor 
tant,  or  be  without  advantage  if  uttered.  But  the 
nearer  a  truth  lies  to  the  great  centres,  the  more  im 
portant  is  its  utterance.  To  utter  one  such  is  more 
than  to  gain  a  field  at  Granicus  or  Waterloo.  To  at 
tain  such  truths,  is  one  of  the  great  objects  of  living. 
Prayerful  thought,  in  moments  deemed  idle,  is  often 
fruitful  of  such.  They  come  in  many  a  moment  of 
repose,  and  absence  from  books  and  papers  ;  we  are 
less  masters  of  our  own  trains  of  thought,  than  we 
natter  ourselves. 

§37.  Truth  in  Trains.  —  Those  meditations  which 
are  in  such  a  sense  our  own  that  they  are  little  mingled 
with  names,  authorities,  citations,  and  other  men's 
thoughts  and  words,  are  most  valuable  to  us,  and  most 
useful  to  others.  They  are  worth  waiting  for.  We 
cannot  expect  many  of  them  ;  but  we  should  seize 
them  with  thankfulness.  In  no  period  of  my  life  has 
this  so  much  struck  me  as  lately  ;  forming  a  sort  of 
epoch  in  my  mental  experience.  I  think  it  a  little 
affects  my  preaching.  The  trains  of  thought  I  mean 
are  not  scholastic  ratiocinations.  Though  unspeakably 
above  all  experience  or  attainment  of  my  own  ;  the 
reflections  of  Bacon  and  Pascal  exemplify  my  notion. 


§  38.  Rules  often  Constrain.—  kl&ny  of  the  com 
mon  rules  for  the  conduct  of  the  mind,  are  too  much 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          451 

like  rules  for  the  management  of  the  body.  Even  the 
body,  if  alive,  must  not  be  dealt  with  altogether  as 
brute  matter. 

I  never  could  understand  those  people  who  divide 
their  clay  into  portions,  with  a  pair  of  compasses,  and 
allot  so  much  to  one  study,  and  so  much  to  another. 
I  used  to  make  such  schedules  when  I  was  a  lad. 
Great  credit  did  I  take  to  myself  for  making  them, 
and  great  shame  for  breaking  them  ;  which  I  did  day 
by  day.  I  am  now  convinced  that  any  attainments 
which  have  fallen  to  my  lot,  were  really  not  made  in 
these  compulsory  hours. 

When  a  man  is  roaming  about  his  library,  taking 
down  now  this  book,  and  then  that,  pacing  the  floor, 
scribbling  on  a  bit  of  paper,  humming  a  tune,  and 
seeming  to  others  and  to  himself  to  trifle,  he  is  often 
engaged  in  his  most  profitable  exercise. 

"Where  there  is  an  active  inquiring  mind,  some 
thing  is  always  brewing.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
idleness.  If  he  is  not  eating,  he  is  ruminating.  If  he 
is  not  gathering  the  raw  material,  he  is  elaborating 
that  which  has  been  gathered.  Many  of  these  pro 
cesses  go  on  without  our  control.  Our  best  trains  of 
thought  come  and  go  without  our  bidding.  The  man 
who  never  knows  what  it  is  to  throw  himself  upon 
these  waves,  and  go  whither  they  carry  him,  is  not 
likely  to  have  very  genial  thoughts. 


452  THOUGHTS    ON    PKE  ACHING. 

Every  kind  of  knowledge  comes  into  play  some 
time  or  other  ;  not  only  that  which  is  systematic  and 
methodized,  but  that  which  is  fragmentary,  even  the 
odds  and  ends,  the  merest  rag  or  tag  of  information. 
Single  facts — anecdotes — expressions — recur  to  the 
mind,  and  by  the  power  of  association,  just  in  the  right 
place.  Many  of  these  are  laid  in  during  what  we 
think  our  idlest  days. 

.All  that  fund  of  matter  which  is  used  allusively  in 
similitudes  and  illustrations,  is  collected  in  diversions 
from  the  path  of  hard  study.  He  will  do  best  in  this 
line  whose  range  has  been  the  widest  and  the  freest. 
A  man  may  study  so  much  by  rule  as  to  lose  all  this : 
just  as  one  may  ride  so  much  on  the  highway  as  to 
know  nothing  that  is  off  the  road. 

The  mind  is  capacious  in  its  workings.  It  loves 
to  assert  its  independence,  and  insists  upon  being 
consulted  as  to  whether  it  will  do  this  or  that. 
Therefore  in  her  highest  actings  she  abhors  task 
work,  and  shakes  off  the  yoke. 

§  39.  Diversities  of  religious  Opinion. — "With 
one  and  the  same  Bible  before  them,  how  wonderful 
are  the  differences  of  human  creeds !  The  catalogue 
of  sects,  schools,  and  doctrines,  might  itself  fill  a  vol 
ume.  This  is  at  times  a  most  painful  thought  to 
every  considerate  mind.  I  have  sometimes  thought 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          453 

those  happy  who  cling  without  scruple  to  what  they 
have  "been  taught,  and  have  no  agitations  about  other 
people's  opinions.  But  such  cannot  be  the  condition 
of  one  who  is  set  for  the  defence  of  the  truth.  It  is 
doubtful,  also,  whether  an  independent  mind  can  en 
joy  firm  confidence,  except  as  the  result  of  some 
shaking  from  the  arguments  of  opposing  reasoners. 
I  have  observed  that  in  perusing  any  able  statement 
of  a  heterodox  creed,  I  am  for  the  time  being  affected 
with  their  force  ;  and  it  is  not  till  afterwards  that  the 
mind  recovers  itself,  and  comes  to  rest.  It  may  be 
likened  to  the  needle  of  a  compass,  drawn  aside  by 
an  accidental  attraction.  At  length  it  finds  its  true 
meridian  :  but  not  without  some  anxiety  and  dis 
quietude. 

This  state  of  mind  is  never  produced  by  reading 
the  simple  text  of  the  Scripture.  The  mind  then 
points  towards  its  proper  pole  and  is  at  rest. 

It  is  not  good  to  be  much  conversant  with  error, 
even  though  the  object  be  to  refute  it ;  it  is  disturb 
ing,  if  not  defiling. 

Private  and  unlettered  Christians,  who  value  their 
own  peace,  will  not  willingly  hear  preachers,  or  read 
books,  which  inculcate  error. 

The  same  reasons  show  the  importance  of  dealing 
as  much  as  possible  with  the  sacred  oracles  them 
selves. 


454:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

§  40.  Reflection. — The  error  is  great  of  supposing 
that  the  mind  is  making  no  progress  and  acquiring 
no  knowledge,  when  it  is  not  conversing  with  books  ; 
and.  it  is  one  of  the  errors  of  bookish  men.  There  are 
pauses  amidst  study,  and  even  pauses  of  seeming 
idleness,  in  which  a  process  goes  on  which  may  be 
likened  to  the  digestion  of  food.  In  those  seasons  of 
repose,  the  powers  are  gathering  their  strength  for 
new  efforts  ;  as  land  which  lies  fallow,  and  recovers 
itself  for  tillage. 

To  be  worth  much  the  mind  must  sometimes  be 
left  to  itself.  It  must  pursue  its  bent,  and  sometimes 
condescend  even  to  trifles.  Perpetual  readers  violate 
this  law  of  the  mental  constitution,  and  never  with 
impunity.  Those  especially  who  are  so  exclusively 
professional  in  their  pursuits  as  to  do  every  thing  by 
rule  and  compass,  to  the  neglect  of  all  generous  lite 
rature,  and  gentle,  graceful  entertainment,  never  fail 
to  become  rigid,  barren  of  invention,  and  cold  in  ex 
pression.  The  grateful  interruption  of  family  hours 
and  company  are  as  good  for  the  mind  as  for  the 
body.  Hence  I  think  a  married  man  is  more  likely 
to  be  a  successful  scholar  than  a  bachelor. 

Reflective  minds  cannot  be  wholly  idle.  Even  in 
play,  they  work  on,  in  spite  of  themselves.  Sea 
sons  of  intermission  often  give  birth  to  the  best 
thoughts. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         455 

§  41.  Regulate  the  Heart. — It  is  more  important 
to  regulate  the  spirit  than  the  steps.  A  right  heart 
is  better  than  a  right  method.  A  man  may  have 
ever  so  good  a  plan  of  duties,  but  he  will  do  none  of 
them  if  the  feelings  be  wrong  ;  whereas,  if  the  affec 
tions  be  right,  he  will  be  almost  sure  to  do  what  is 
proper.  Hence  praying  is  better  than  planning. 

This  derives  force  from  the  consideration  that  we 
seldom  find  the  duties  of  any  one  day  exactly  what 
wTe  laid  out  on  the  day  before.  Our  performance, 
when  it  is  best,  is  often  called  forth  by  emer 
gencies. 

There  may  be  fruitless  care  about  even  the  duty 
of  the  morrow. 

The  best  preparation  for  the  week's  work  is  the 
communion  of  the  Sabbath. 

The  best  preparation  for  the  coming  day  is  the  de 
votion  of  the  previous  evening. 

"When  the  Scripture  is  let  alone,  the  wheels  of 
duty  roll  heavily. 

§  42.  The  Power  of  the  Will.— The  power  of  the 
"Will  to  change  states  of  mind  and  trains  of  thought, 
deserves  consideration.  It  is  not  a  direct  power,  and 
it  has  certain  limits  ;  yet  we  all  know  that  man's  ac 
tivity  has  a  certain  scope,  even  in  regard  to  this  class 
of  objects.  It  is  true,  a  man  who  hates  cannot  by  a 


456  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

volition  cause  himself  to  love  that  which  he  just  now 
hated.  I^or  can  one  who  is  in  deep  sorrow  cause 
himself  instantaneously  to  rejoice,  by  merely  willing  it. 
Yet  we  are  not  therefore  to  lie  down  in  a  condition  of 
absolute  passivity,  and  yield  ourselves  to  the  cogency 
of  evil  tempers  by  a  sort  of  fatality.  There  are  moments 
in  which  we  all  feel  that  we  are  aroused  to  a  sudden  ex 
ercise  of  volition,  which  scatters  the  preceding  feel 
ings  as  the  sun  scatters  clouds.  The  melancholy 
man,  brought  to  a  sense  of  the  folly,  wretchedness, 
and  danger  of  his  brooding,  resolves  to  break  the 
charm,  and  is  successful.  Query  :  How  far  this  con 
cerns  the  faculty  of  Attention  ?  The  mind  checks  its 
present  current — it  directs  itself  to  new  objects — it 
regards  motives  which  have  hitherto  lain  in  the  shade 
— it  finds  a  corresponding  and  often  immediate 
change  in  its  temper  and  moods. 

§  43.  Aphorisms  on  Self-denial  of  Appetite  : 
(1.)  Pain  is  to  be  incurred,  or  else  there  would  be 
no  self-denial :  it  is,  therefore,  to  be  expected  and  sub 
mitted  to. 

(2.)  The  pain  of  denied  gratification  may  be  very 
great,  especially  in  the  beginnings  of  self-denial ;  but 
there  is  no  pain  which  so  surely  decreases  and  disap 
pears.  Short  pains,  for  a  good  end,  certainly  result 
ing  in  pleasure,  may  be  encountered  with  cheerfulness 


MISCELLANEOUS    PARAGRAPHS.  457 

and  borne  with  resolution.  There  is  even  a  sort  of 
pleasure  in  bearing  such  pains. 

(3.)  Solicitations  of  appetite  address  themselves  to 
our  lower  nature  through  animal  senses,  and  must 
therefore  be  put  down  harshly  and  summarily.  It  is 
not  enough  to  plead  and  reason  against  them.  Ven 
ter  non  habit  aures.  They  must  be  ejected  instantly, 
without  parley,  as  you  would  cast  out  a  noxious 
beast. 

(4.)  For  this  reason,  every  animal  association 
should  be  cut  off,  which  might  remain  as  a  fomes  of 
the  appetite.  Therefore  most  attempts  to  break  off 
an  evil  habit  by  degrees  fail,  when  the  habit  is  com 
plicated  with  an  appetite.  This  is  frequently  observed 
in  the  case  of  ardent  spirits.  Suppose  a  reforming 
drunkard  to  take  a  teaspoonful  of  brandy  per  diem. 
This  would  suffice  to  keep  up  the  taste,  and  suggest 
indulgence.  The  only  safety  is  therefore  in  absolute 
abnegation. 

§  44.  God  Overrules. — God  overrules  even  those 

events  in  which  we  have  acted  erroneously.    Wretched 

'should  we  be,  if  he  did  not.     ISTone  of  our  choices, 

purposes,  and  arrangements,  are  free  from  sin.     All 

need  to  be  washed  in  the  blood  of  Christ.     Take  an 

instance :  Hastily,  and  perhaps  carelessly,  I  allow  a 

dear  friend  to  set  out  on  a  perilous  journey.     In  this 

20 


458  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

there  is  certainly  a  measure  of  sin,  which  God  might 
visit.  I  am  in  great  anxiety  for  the  safety  of  this 
friend  ;  and  this  anxiety  is  increased  by  the  fear  that 
I  have  done  wrong,  which  prevents  filial  confidence. 
But  how  gracious  is  our  Covenant  God  !  He  prevents 
our  errors  from  comiog  back  upon  us  in  judgment. 
The  Covenant  of  Grace,  being  founded  on  Christ's 
perfect  merits,  works  its  blessed  fruits  even  when  we 
are  sinners.  Even  in  such  junctures  we  should  confi 
dently  roll  our  burden  on  the  Lord,  with  penitence 
for  our  sin,  and  trust  in  his  abounding  mercy. 

§  45.  More  Maxims  : 

(1.)  He  who  begins  to  love  his  neighbour  as  him 
self,  will  be  more  cast  down  for  the  sake  of  others 
than  for  his  own  sake. 

(2.)  Melancholy  is  so  much  promoted  by  musing 
idleness,  that  the  best  preventive  of  it  is  to  pass 
rapidly  from  one  employment  to  another,  all  day 
long,  without  any  intervals  of  solitude  or  revery. 

(3.)  As  we  go  on  in  life,  we  ought  to  be  more 
public-spirited,  and  to  make  our  anxieties,  projects, 
and  prayers  devote  themselves  to  some  matter  of 
general  concern. 

(4.)  Never  give  over  the  endeavour  to  overcome 
bad  habits  of  mind  or  body,  or  those  complicated 
of  both. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PARAGRAPHS.  459 

(5.)  Seize  the  happy  moment  of  enthusiasm,  when 
the  impulse  is  in  a  right  direction.  In  the  same  de 
gree,  flee  from  those  sudden  exaltations  which  tend  to 
evil.  Cry  avaunt !  and  encourage  the  feeling  of  ab 
horrence. 

(6.)  Our  need  of  preventive  grace  is  nowhere  more 
felt  than  when  a  temptation  comes  upon  us  suddenly. 
At  such  moments,  if  left  to  ourselves,  we  are  weak 
ness  itself.  Under  such  access  of  the  enemy,  great 
crimes  have  been  committed. 

§  46.  Think  for  Yourself. — A  thinking  man's 
thoughts  gradually  grow  into  a  system.  The  less  he 
follows  other  men's  lives,  the  more  will  his  own 
fabric  of  method  compact  itself.  It  is  not  always 
best  to  counterwork  this  tendency.  The  great  points 
of  any  one's  scheme  will  come  out  in  his  preaching. 
In  treating  these  favourite  topics  will  be  his  principal 
strength. 

Those  on  which  he  dwells  most  frequently,  and 
with  most  delight,  are  such  as  are  central  to  his  sys 
tem  of  belief. 

§  4T.  Physical  Discipline. — My  mind  turns  upon 
the  subject  of  physical  discipline  as  subject  to  relig 
ious  principle.  The  New  Testament  is  somewhat 
remarkable  for  the  entire  absence  of  that  ascetic  ele 
ment,  which  reigns  so  much  in  many  false  religions, 


460  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

and  which  played  so  large  a  part  in  the  Christian 
Church  during  all  its  period  of  decadence.  The 
body  is  not  treated  as  necessarily  evil.  Abstinences 
are  not  enjoined.  There  are  no  fasts  assigned  to  par 
ticular  days.  Macerations  and  penances  are  not  so 
much  as  alluded  to,  except  in  the  way  of  rebuke. 

But  while  this  is  true,  it  is  not  less  undeniable, 
that  the  New  Testament  makes  it  a  duty  to  keep  the 
body  in  a  subordinate  place,  namely,  in  subjection  to 
the  soul,  and  in  perpetual  obedience  and  fitness  to  be 
the  holy  instrument  of  all  spiritual  acts.  We  per 
ceive  at  once,  that  there  is  a  pampering  of  the  flesh 
which  is  inconsistent  with  a  holy  life.  There  must  be 
some  self-denial  and  subjugation  of  the  lower  part,  in 
order  to  keep  it  from  that  horrid  inversion  in  which 
appetites  and  passions  acquire  the  dominancy.  All 
habits  of  self-indulgence  are  to  be  prevented  and 
broken  up.  We  form  in  our  better  moments  the 
ideal  of  a  life,  in  which  the  character  is  produced  by 
moderation,  temperance,  reserve  in  things  lawful,  fru 
gality,  simplicity,  adherence  to  natural  tastes,  the 
cutting  off  of  pleasures  which  are  seducing,  or  in  any 
degree  tend  to  enslave. 

§  48.  A  Simple  Rule. — Do  that  which  you  think 
will  please  God,  and  you  will  keep  a  good  conscience. 
By  so  doing  you  will,  in  the  long  run,  as  much  avoid 


MISCELLANEOUS  PAKAGEAPHS.          461 

the  censure  of  men  as  if  you  made  it  a  special  object 
to  please  them.  Every  act  of  your  life  will  be  tend 
ing  to  form  the  right  kind  of  character.  You  will  be 
more  likely  to  be  useful,  and  will  certainly  be  hap 
pier.  If  you  fail,  you  will  not  have  the  additional 
pain  which  arises  from  blaming  yourself. 

This  is  the  simplest  of  all  rules  of  life.  It  admits 
of  perpetual  application,  nor  is  there  any  conceivable 
case  which  it  does  not  reach. 

Please  not  yourself,  nor  vain  human  creatures, 
but  God. 

§  49.  The  man  who  undertakes  to  go  through  life 
upon  a  settled  plan,  which  he  is  not  to  modify  accord 
ing  to  circumstances,  is  much  like  one  who  should 
undertake  to  traverse  a  country  in  a  mathematical 
straight  line. 

§  50.  Use  of  Knowledge. — -There  are  two  very 
common  but  very  opposite  ways  of  employing  eru 
dition  and  science.  The  one  is  that  of  learned  com 
mentators  and  disquisitioners,  who  accumulate  stores 
of  antiquarian  and  recondite  lore,  multiply  quotations, 
a,nd  produce  great  volumes,  which  may  have  a  zest 
for  a  few  virtuosos,  but  which  in  the  common  mind 
can  awaken  only  amazement  or  alarm.  This  is  the 
method  by  which  men  acquire  great  fame  in  the  re 
public  of  letters. 


462  THOUGHTS    ON   PKE ACHING. 

The  other  way  is  the  humble  mode  of  those  who 
write  for  the  instruction  of  the  people.  Equal  per 
haps  in  real  learning  to  the  former,  they  never  ac 
quire  the  same  notoriety.  Their  ambition  is  to  smooth 
the  way  for  humbler  minds,  to  make  the  profundities 
of  science  accessible,  and  to  furnish  the  high  distilla 
tion  from  varied  researches.  It  is  my  ambition  to 
belong  to  the  latter  class.  Even  if  no  higher  object 
should  be  gained  than  to  simplify  science  for  children 
or  apprentices,  or  to  make  religion  fully  known  in  a 
plain  way,  to  the  sons  of  ignorance,  I  should  think  it 
a  task  worthy  to  employ  a  lifetime. 

§  51.  When  we  summon  the  worldly  to  abandon 
the  world,  it  is  not  so  much  like  asking  the  mariner  to 
cast  his  wares  into  the  sea  in  order  to  save  his  life, 
as  it  is  like  the  command  to  the  Israelites  to  leave 
their  farms  and  their  possessions,  and  go  up  to  the 
temple-feast,  in  the  assurance  that  God  would  provide 
for  them. 

§  52.  Philosophical  Studies. — Lately  my  mind 
has  been  much  engaged  about  the  ethical  heresies  of 
Paley  and  the  Utilitarians.  It  has  almost  seemed  my 
duty  to  go  into  the  investigation,  and  I  have  been 
reading  some  of  Plato  and  the  Platonists.  I  am  de 
terred  chiefly  by  the  fear  of  that  philosophy,  falsely 
so  called,  which  is  denounced  in  Scripture.  My  ob- 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         463 

ject  is  truth,  and  I  am  sure  if  it  were  revealed  to  me 
to  be  right,  I  would  this  moment  forswear  all  other 
reading  but  the  Bible  for  life.  But  I  am  almost  sure 
this  would  be  altogether  wrong. 

I  like  good  F.  Scott's  notion,  that  we  are  bees, 
that  we  seek  every  sort  of  flower,  but  bring  our  gains 
back  to  one  Hive,  namely,  the  Bible. 

It  is  one  of  the  glories  of  the  Bible,  that  it  ex 
presses  the  grandest  principles  of  the  highest  philoso 
phy  in  the  language  of  children. 

§  53.  Take  no  Thought  for  the  Morrow. — "We 
might  accomplish  more  if  we  were  not  foolishly  ask 
ing  ourselves  so  often,  how  long  such  and  such  a  great 
work  would  take  us.  Professor  Rob.  B.  Patton  used 
to  engage  in  most  laborious  lexicographical  works. 
When  asked  how  he  had  patience  to  go  on,  he  said, 
that  he  never  thought  of  asking  how  long  it  would 
take  him,  but  went  on  as  if  it  were  to  .be  his  work 
for  life. 

Dr.  John  Breckinridge  made  the  same  remark, 
when  asked  about  those  immense  journeys  which  he 
takes  to  collect  money — he  never  looks  upon  them  as 
things  which  must  end. 

Addison  tells  me  he  finds  the  same  thing  good  in 
his  commentary  on  Isaiah.  Our  Lord's  maxim  about 
taking  thought  for  the  morrow,  seems  to  have  very 
wide  applications. 


464:  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

§  54.  A  Student's  Sabbath. — Preachers  and  other 
students  seldom  have  any  day  of  rest.  True,  they 
make,  if  conscientious,  some  change  in  labours,  but 
on  the  Lord's  day  they  read,  read,  read,  as  indeseren- 
ter  commonly  as  on  other  days.  This  is  a  great  fault 
and  folly.  Just  as  really  as  the  working  man  needs 
rest  from  hammer  and  flail,  does  the  thinking  man 
need  rest  from  thought.  I  think  students  ought  to 
make  the  Sabbath  a  delight,  by  closing  books,  except 
the  lighter  and  devotional  parts  of  Scripture,  by  gen 
tle  nursing,  by  cheerful  religious  talk,  by  singing 
God's  praise,  and  by  works  of  mercy. 

§  55.  Variety  in  the  Bible. — The  Scriptures  are 
not  the  same  to  all  readers,  any  more  than  the  flowers 
of  the  garden  are  the  same  to  all  insects.  One  man 
seeks  this,  another  seeks  that ;  none  extract  all  the 

sweetness.     Under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  each 

• 

belieyer  gains  that  which  is  needful  for  him,  discov 
ering  -and  assimilating  this  by  a  gracious  affinity. 
When  such  men  systematize  their  deductions,  they 
are  far  from  being  the  same.  How  unlike  the  Scrip 
tural  treasures  of  Augustine,  of  Luther,  of  Howe,  of 
Edwards,  of  Bunyan,  of  Hale,  and  of  Chalmers ! 
Yet  each  one  may  get  truth  and  holiness  in  this  gar 
den.  These  trees  yield  twelve  manner  of  fruit. 

The  Scriptures  are  not  the  same  to  the  readers  of 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         465 

all  ages.  Primitive  believers  saw  not  all  that  we  see. 
Let  me  here  be  guarded.  Truth  is  the  same  forever ; 
that  which  is  Scripture  truth  to-day  will  be  so  to 
eternity.  Nothing  can  be  added  to  the  truth  of  the 
inspiration.  But  there  may  be  great  additions  to  our 
knowledge  of  it ;  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  be 
lieve,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  in  leading  believers  into 
all  needed  truth,  adapts  his  ministrations  of  light  to 
the  exigencies  of  particular  times. 

This  should  guard  us  against  relying  too  much  on 
the  deductions  of  other  men,  however  great  and  good, 
as  if  they  had  seen  all,  and  left  nothing  to  be  gleaned 
in  the  field  of  original  inquiry.  However  wonderful 
the  discoveries  of  an  Austin,  a  Calvin,  or  an  Owen — 
however  true,  however  extensive — -they  are  not  the 
inspired  originals  ;  I  may  not  confine  myself  to  their 
teachings.  They  saw  and  appropriated  all  that  the 
Spirit  saw  to  be  suitable  for  their  own  personal  good 
and  the  good  of  .the  church  in  their  da*y,  and  I  will 
thankfully  sit  at  their  feet,  and  be  guided  by  their 
experience.  But  my  personal  good,  and  the  personal 
good  of  the  church  in  our  peculiar  day,  may  demand 
other  truth  in  other  method,  and  these  I  must  endea 
vour  to  get  for  myself  from  the  Scriptures,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  same  Spirit.  As  we  approach  the 
latter  glory  and  the  return  of  the  Messiah,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  scroll  of  prophecy  will  be 
20* 


466  THOUGHTS    ON   PJREACHING. 

yet  more  unrolled,  and  that  truths  hitherto  left  in  the 
shade  will  be  brought  out  in  brilliant  prominency. 

"What  an  inducement  have  we  here  to  study  the 
Bible  day  and  night — to  look  with  our  own  eyes  for 
hidden  veins  in  this  mine — to  seek  for  it  as  for  hid  treas 
ures  !  In  expectation  of  this,  and  in  faithful  reliance 
on  that  Spirit  who  gave  the  revelation,  and  seeking 
that  anointing  which  abides  with  all  the  elect  (1 
John),  we  may  well  leave  for  a  season  the  command 
ments  of  men,  and  ponder  on  the  pure  original  text. 
Perhaps  as  we  pray  and  wait  over  the  holy  word,  we 
may  receive  communications  better  suited  to  our 
personal  wants  and  our  relation  to  the  world  that  now 
is,  than  if  we  were  to  master  all  the  fathers,  all  the 
schoolmen,  and  all  the  reformers. 

§  56.  Argument  the  Basis  of  Devotion. — The  fol 
lowing  experience  I  have  often  had,  but,  I  believe, 
never  committed  to  writing.  On  Sabbath  and  other 
occasions,  I  have  wearied  myself  with  attempts  to 
awaken  devotional  feeling,  by  reading  compositions 
of  a  merely  hortatory  kind — practical  and  experimen 
tal  writings.  Our  devotion  must  have  a  solid  basis, 
and  I  believe  it  is  in  many  cases  the  best  thing  we 
can  do  to  go  into  the  very  strongest  parts  of  theologi 
cal  argument,  and  feed  upon  such  strong  meat  as  one 
finds  in  Calvin.  Rivet,  Turretin,  "Witsius,  and  Owen. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          4:67 

§  57.  Thought  of  the  Day. — "We  must  work  more 
outwards.  We  must  bring  Christian  principles  to 
bear  more  on  the  masses  of  men.  "We  must  show 
them  that  what  they  seek  by  vain  philanthropy,  is 
realized  wherever  true  Christianity  takes  effect.  If 
all  men  were  good  Christians,  the  evils  of  society 
would  be  in  a  good  degree  abated.  Prescriptive 
wrongs  would  cease.  Property  would  be  equalized. 
The  rich  would  communicate  of  their  wealth,  and 
the  poor  would  rise  by  industry,  temperance,  fru 
gality,  and  wisdom.  The  Bible  is  made  for  all  ages, 
and  with  every  new  discovery  in  science,  it  meets  us 
and  shows  a  coincidence.  The  worldly  philosopher 
and  philanthropist  dreams  of  a  perfect  state  of  society 
— good-will  among  men  and  universal  peace.  Now, 
the  Bible  not  only  predicts  this,  but  shows  how  it  is 
to  be  attained.  The  principles  of  Christianity  tend 
to  produce  that  very  state.  All  the  high  civilization 
and  humanity  of  the  best  nations  is  in  fact  the 
product  of  Christianity.  In  countries  where  science, 
literature,  and  the  arts  are  in  a  high  state,  without 
true  religion,  we  see  luxury,  excessive  pleasure,  hard 
ness  of  heart,  false  honour,  duelling,  and  suicide.  Of 
this  France  is  a  great  instance.  The  true  way  then 
to  benefit,  and  even  remodel  society,  is  to  make  it 
Christian.  This  method  is  as  simple  as  it  is  powerful. 
It  proceeds  upon  no  false  or  doubtful  hypothesis, 


468  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

either  of  politics  or  economy.  "While  men  endlessly 
differ  and  dispute  about  these,  and  change  one  exper 
iment  for  another  in  an  endless  round,  losing  their 
beginnings  by  the  change,  and  destroying  human 
peace  in  the  fruitless  and  soon  abandoned  trials,  the 
humble  Christian  endeavours  are  going  forward,  with 
a  noiseless  but  mighty  efficacy. 

Place  a  thousand  men  in  a  Utopian  community, 
such  as  Owens,  and  try  to  mould  them  by  the  vision 
ary  principles  of  the  "  New  Social  World,"  and  the 
result  is  discord,  failure,  and  misery.  But  place  a 
thousand  men  anywhere  in  the  world,  and  make 
them  true  Christians,  and  you  attain  really  all  the 
good  ends  sought  in  the  former  experiment,  and  ren 
der  them  as  happy  as  men  can  be  in  our  world. 
Hence  the  man  who  does  most  to  bring  over  those 
around  him  to  the  principles  and  practice  of  true  re 
ligion,  is  the  truest  philanthropist. 

§  58.  Take  Time  to  Decide.— When  a  difficulty, 
or  an  objection,  or  a  specious  error  is  presented  to  the 
mind,  so  as  greatly  to  stagger  it,  we  are  not  forthwith 
to  be  disconcerted.  All  minds  are  not  capacious 
enough,  or  quick  enough,  to  resolve  such  doubts  at  a 
moment's  warning.  Let  the  matter  rest  a  little. 
The  intellect  will  collect  its  strength,  and  after  some 
rest  and  meditation,  the  judgment  will  come  to  a 


MISCELLANEOUS  PAKAGKAPHS.          469 

sound  conclusion.  This  I  have  experienced  many 
times.  It  takes  place  sometimes  without  occupying 
the  thoughts  in  any  stated  or  deliberate  manner  on 
the  subject,  during  the  interval.  The  process  resem 
bles  the  oscillations  of  a  pendulum,  which  at  length 
settles  in  its  proper  direction.  Hence  it  is  not  always 
right  to  answer  an  objection  immediately.  This  slow 
process  is  perhaps  most  commonly  that  of  judicious 
and  experienced  persons.  Temporary  scepticism  is 
distressing  ;  but  when  we  find  by  experience  that  it  is 
relieved  by  wise  delay,  it  need  give  no  serious  distress. 
"With  a  crafty  man,  who  suspects  others,  because 
he  knows  his  own  way  to  be  the  way  of  stratagem, 
the  best  way  of  dealing  is  the  freest  and  most  open. 
It  wonderfully  confounds  his  toils,  while  here  as  else 
where  it  is  the  most  easily  maintained. 

§  59.   Thoughts  for  the  Time, 

(1.)  Learned  labours  give  little  help  in  hours  of 
alarm. 

(2.)  Sudden  fears  and  troubles  startle  us,  and 
drive  us  to  thoughts  of  plain  religion. 

(3.)  A  certain  important  habit  of  soul  is  produced 
by  the  custom  of  daily  silence  and  meditation. 

(4.)  The  more  bookish  a  man  is,  the  more  does  he 
need  both  for  his  intellect  and  his  heart,  these  mo 
ments  of  contemplative  retreat. 


470  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

(5.)  Pauses  of  indisposition  often  force  on  us  that 
self-communion  and  thought  of  God. 

(6.)  All  is  well  when  we  apprehend  God's  order 
ing.  His  will  is  supreme  law.  Holiness  is  acquies 
cence  in  that  will. 

(7.)  Faith  is  indispensable  in  times  of  panic  :  great 
knowledge  is  not  so.  Here  the  humblest  mind  com 
monly  fares  best. 

(8.)  Peace  in  trouble  comes  not  from  reasoning, 
but  from  faith,  hope,  and  love. 

(9).  The  graces  which  sustain  us  in  trial,  proceed 
from  the  immediate  and  almighty  agency  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

(10.)  In  affliction,  especially  in  surprises,  the  soul 
falls  back  on  its  prevalent  habits,  whether  wavering 
or  fixed. 

(11.)  In  the  religious  habits  of  our  common  days, 
we  are  all  the  while  preparing  for  the  hour  of  afflic 
tion  and  the  hour  of  death. 

(12.)  It  is  all-important  to  be  every  day  living  in 
the  belief  of  the  unseen  world,  and  as  in  the  felt 
presence  of  Christ. 

(13.)  A  few  minutes  in  the  busy  day  spent  in 
absolute  abstraction  from  the  world,  with  a  complete 
rupture  of  worldly  threads,  are  among  the  best  means 
we  enjoy.  They  are  to  the  day  what  the  Sabbath  is 
to  the  week. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         4:71 

(14.)  Well  would  it  be,  often  in  the  day,  to  seek 
those  quiet  frames  which  sometimes  come  when  we 
compose  ourselves  for  sleep. 

(15.)  In  true  retirement  of  soul  there  is  nothing  of 
perturbation  or  of  gloom,  but  rather  of  cheerfulness. 
It  is  a  healthy  state. 

(16.)  These  states  of  mind  are  allied  to  humility 
and  meekness. 

(17).  The  true  position  of  the  soul  is  like  that 
of  constant  childlike  waiting  011  God  for  these  in 
fluences. 

(18.)  The  medium  through  which  these-  graces 
descend,  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

(19.)  We  cannot  reason  ourselves  into  holy  frames ; 
it  is  better  to  say,  Lord,  increase  our  faith  ! 

(20.)  Keep  very  low  before  God,  and  seek  to 
please  him  rather  than  man,  and  you  will  find  your 
self  armed  against  mortifications. 

(21.)  Cherish  those  views  which  agree  most  with 
pity  for  every  kind  of  human  suffering,  and  active 
labours  for  Christ's  people. 

(22.)  ^Nothing  is  more  remarkable  in  the  religious 
experience  of  the  Bible,  than  its  childlike  simplicity. 
It  is  the  aroma  of  the  patriarchal  life,  as  of  a  field 
which  the  Lord  has  blessed.  See  it  in  the  Apostle 
John.  I  know  an  ancient  disciple  in  whom  it  is  very 
apparent. 


472  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

(23.)  Much  in  our  religion  is  borrowed  from  the 
accidents  of  individual  religious  experience,  and  not 
from  the  Bible. 

(24.)  We  are  healthy  in  our  frames  when  they 
lead  us  much  to  the  Bible,  and  much  to  the  throne  of 
grace. 

(25.)  External  beneficence  is  a  happy  antidote  to 
the  poisons  that  grow  rank  in  the  shade  of  scholastic 
study. 

§  60.  Wait  for  Uncommon  Grace. — Life  is  too 
short  to  be  spent  in  renewing  vain  experiments. 
"What  I  ought  to  be,  I  should  seek  to  be  without  de 
lay.  I  have  been  brought  to  feel  to-day  that  there  is 
a  snare  in  many  books  as  much  as  in  abundance  of 
company.  They  occupy  the  thoughts,  and  keep  them 
away  from  holy  objects.  This  explains  what  I  have 
long  found  true,  that  my  best  religious  thoughts  are 
in  two  situations,  when  I  am  abroad,  and  when  I  am 
in  bed  ;  in  both  cases  away  from  the  literary  objects 
of  my  study.  There  is  scarcely  any  moment,  in  which 
a  student  may  not  take  down  some  volume,  to  gratify 
the  craving,  or  suit  the  present  mood.  But  this 
brings  in  thoughts  of  other  men,  which  is  the  same  as 
the  diversion  of  company ;  and  how  seldom  do  we 
make  conscience  of  the  kind  of  book.  It  may  be  in 
nocent  or  useful,  it  may  be  needed,  and  yet  it  may 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         473 

have  nothing  of  spiritual  nurture.  The  case  is  differ 
ent,  when  we  make  our  chief  book  the  Bible ;  and 
hence  the  great  advantage  of  a  preacher  and  pastor. 
And  hence  also  a  certain  disadvantage  in  my  profes 
sorship,  which  leads  me  in  no  case  directly  to  the 
Scriptures,  in  their  spiritual  meaning.  Nothing  is 
more  fully  made  out  to  me  by  observation  and  ex 
perience,  than  that  the  way  of  holiness  and  happi 
ness  is  that  of  constant  reading  of  God's  word,  with 
prayer. 

§  61.  Great  Christians. — How  little  adventurous 
independent  piety  !  Bold  thinking,  but  tame  mimic 
religion.  We  feel  and  do  as  others  feel  and  do  ;  re 
produce  their  diaries,  rehearse  their  prayers,  and  catch 
the  fashion  of  their  awakenings.  To  be  a  great 
Christian,  would  be  to  become  very  unlike  the  men 
around  us  ;  hence  great  Christians  have  been  in  soli 
tudes,  in  missions,  or  among  persecutions.  Sometimes 
I  think  we  are  more  tied  down  to  a  conventional  piety 
than  the  very  Romanists.  Their  great  saints  went 
astray,  and  are  not  to  be  imitated  ;  but  they  did  not 
adhere  to  the  old,  hereditary  ways ;  they  broke  out 
in  a  new  direction.  Are  not  yearnings  after  better 
things  among  God's  ways  of  producing  them  ?  Are 
not  strange  trials,  pains,  mortifications  and  humblings, 
among  God's  ways  of  training  the  soul  ?  Should  not 


474:  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

such  junctures  be  faithfully  seized  upon,  for  making 
higher  reaches  of  experience  ?  Have  not  special  sea 
sons  of  devotion,  with  long-continued  prayers  and 
praises,  been  remarkably  owned  of  God  ?  Can  emi 
nent  piety  be  reached  without  them  ? 

We  are  presumptuous  in  figuring  to  ourselves  the 
type  of  piety  which  we  ought  to  attain.  Perhaps  God 
is  forming  us  to  a  different  type.  Perhaps  God  in 
tends  a  type  unknown  in  any  other ;  for  the  inward 
countenance  of  man  is  as  peculiar  to  the  individual  as 
the  outward.  It  is  only  by  waiting  in  comparative 
quietude,  that  we  can  discern  which  way  this  divine 
tendency  guides,  and  there  is  danger  of  running 
whither  we  are  not  sent,  and  even  of  grieving  the 
holy  Spirit  of  grace. 

It  seems  to  me  that  in  our  day  we  take  the  pattern 
and  measure  of  our  religion  too  commonly  from  what 
is  popular,  that  is  from  what  is  bustling,  outward,  and 
full  of  eclat.  But  it  may  appear  in  another  world, 
that  some  of  the  mightiest  influences  have  proceeded 
from  souls  of  great  quiet.  ]STo  book  it  is  supposed  of 
human  composition,  has  had  greater  influence  than 
the  Imitation  of  Christ,  by  Thomas  a  Ivempis.  Some 
of  the  greatest  characters  have  been  formed  in  secret, 
as  some  of  the  wonders  of  nature  are  wrought  under 
the  earth.  No  man  knows  what  God  has  made  him 
for.  Some  men,  for  all  we  know,  may  be  sent  into 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          475 

the  world  chiefly  to  form  other  men.  The  grand  act 
of  a  servant  of  Christ,  for  which  God  has  been  pre 
paring  him  for  many  years,  may  be  to  give  an  impulse 
to  some  other  man,  and  this  may  be  accomplished  in 
a  moment,  and  when  neither  of  the  two  suspects  it. 
No  man  knows  when  the  great  act  of  his  life  takes 
place.  No  man  knows  when  he  is  doing  the  greatest 
good.  The  old  monk  who  directed  young  Martin  Lu 
ther,  possibly  did  nothing  so  important  in  his  life. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  child,  and  whom  would  a  Christian 
more  joyfully  influence  than  the  son  of  his  bosom  ? 
It  is  for  him  we  labour,  pray,  suffer,  and  live.  How 
do  we  know  but  the  chief  purpose  for  which  God  has 
spared  our  lives  is,  that  we  may  form  an  instrument 
for  his  work  in  our  own  family  ?  Thus  the  flowering 
plant  dies  when  it  has  matured  a  fruit  full  of  seed. 
How  insignificant  was  Jesse,  or  Obed,  or  Boaz,  com 
pared  with  David  ;  or  Zacharias  and  Zebedee,  com 
pared  with  the  two  Johns  and  James.  A  due  sense 
of  what  God  demands  of  our  sons,  and  an  insight  into 
his  method  of  planning  and  bestowing  for  a  series  of 
generations,  would  make  us  importunate  for  gifts  of 
the  Spirit  in  our  character  as  educators,  and  gifts  on 
those  who  sit  as  loving  learners  at  our  knees. 

Philip  the  Evangelist  probably  preached  no  ser 
mon  like  that  in  the  chariot.  We  may,  therefore,  err  by 
forcing  matters.  The  guard  must  be  set  here  against 


4:76  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

inaction,  under  pretence  of  spiritual  waiting.  But 
after  a  certain  point  of  experience  is  attained,  we 
readily  distinguish  humble  waiting  for  God's  influ 
ences,  from  indolent,  carnal  sloth. 

The  more  we  believe  in  a  direct  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  sanctification,  the  more  ready  shall  we 
be  to  expect  this  influence  in  ways  which  are  uncom 
mon.  "We  have  no  pledge  that  we  shall  be  operated 
on,  after  the  rubrics  of  other  men  ;  nor  that  the  ways 
in  which  we  may  be  led  shall  always  be  pleasing  to 
other  men,  even  of  the  household  of  faith.  Our  ten 
dencies  are  not  to  be  necessarily  of  the  Spirit  because 
they  seem  so  :  they  are  to  be  tried  by  the  word  ;  and 
they  are  most  apt  to  be  so,  in  and  over  the  world. 
Earnest  prayer  for  so  vast  a  blessing  is  all-important. 
There  is  no  promise  more  explicit  or  more  precious, 
than  that  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  sealed  by  the  reference 
to  our  beloved  children,  and  the  gifts  which  we, 
though  evil,  give  to  them.  It  is  all  things  in  one. 
Therefore  it  is  not  wonderful  that  so  much  is  made  in 
the  ISTew  Testament  of  the  Spirit ;  the  contrast  being 
painful  between  this  and  the  popular  theology. 

After  all,  if  God  did  not  work  in  us,  beyond  our 
knowledge  and  our  seeking,  we  should  come  to  noth 
ing.  0,  give  us  thy  Holy  Spirit ! 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          477 

§  62.  Song  in  the  Night. 

Safe  in  thine  arms  I  lie, 

Dismissing  every  fear, 

For  sure  my  Lord  is  here, 

And  every  ill  shall  fly  ; 

While  from  his  throne  above 

The  dews  of  heavenly  love 

Shall  fall  continually. 

Be  thine  o'erspreading  wing 

Above  us  every  one, 

Till  the  rejoicing  sun, 

A  bridegroom  from  the  east 

Shall  pour  his  ray  of  joy, 

And  give  serene  employ 

To  every  sacred  power, 

As  when  the  opening  flower 

Turns  its  fair  chalice  to  the  dawn, 

And  o'er  the  greening  lawn 

A  thousand  flowery  eyes  look  out  and  smile. 

Come,  everlasting  Light, 

Thou  fount  of  what  is  bright, 

Source  of  all  life  and  bliss, 

Let  no  ill  dream  of  night 

Dare  to  despoil  of  this. 

§  63.  Spiritual  Changes. — Few  truths  have  been 
more  sacredly  impressed  on  me  than  this  :  We  must 
seek  great  and  needful  spiritual  changes,  not  so  much 
from  bringing  our  own  minds  under  rational  consider 
ations,  however  true  and  useful,  as  from  direct  influ 
ences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Experience  shows  that  God, 


478  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

in  his  sovereign  pleasure,  often  leaves  us  to  do  wrong, 
under  the  very  presence  of  admitted  reasons  to  the 
contrary.  It  is  a  part  of  the  Christian  conflict,  set 
forth  in  the  7th  chapter  of  Romans.  The  understand 
ing  is  convinced  ;  the  will  itself  is  somewhat  moved  ; 
yet  there  is  not  such  an  active  volition  as  secures  right 
action.  This  motive  power  must  be  supplied  by  the 
Divine  Spirit.  There  is  then  nothing  we  have  such 
need  to  ask,  as  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

§  64.  Real  Knowledge  and  Book  Learning. — Often 
and  often  I  have  thought  of  the  superfetation  of 
books.  Look  at  libraries,  trade-sales,  catalogues. 
Hear  the  bibliographical  talk  of  some  men.  Recall 
the  innumerable  books  you  have  turned  over. 

Distinguish  properly  between  real  knowledge  and 
book  learning.  Oral  wisdom,  methinks,  will  one  day 
resume  its  ancient  honours,  for  this  very  cause.  Books 
will  crowd  one  another  out.  "What  is  said  by  word  of 
mouth  is  simplest  and  most  lasting.  The  early  prog 
ress  both  of  Christianity  and  philosophy,  was  by  such 
means.  The  best  part  of  education  is  so  conveyed 
now.  Extempore  speaking  derives  some  of  its  advan 
tages  from  this.  ~\Ye  ought  all  to  practise  it  more. 

§  65.  The  Manifestation  of  God. — 

(1.)  It  is  made  the  duty,  as  it  is  the  happiness  of 
man,  to  admire,  love,  and  imitate  the  character  of 
God. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          470 

(2.)  God  is  infinitely  removed  from  human  ap 
prehension,  and  cannot  be  known  any  farther  than  he 
is  pleased  to  reveal  himself. 

(3.)  The  affections  the  man  is  bound  to  feel  towards 
God,  are  impossible  without  some  knowledge  of  God. 

(4.)  If  there  were  no  points  of  likeness  between 
God  and  man,  we  do  not  see  how  man  could  arrive 
at  any  knowledge  of  God.  If,  as  is  probable,  there 
are  attributes  of  God  which  have  no  analogy  in  man, 
we  can  arrive  at  no  more  conception  of  them,  than  of 
objects  or  qualities  for  which  we  have  no  sense. 

(5.)  But  man  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  God, 
and  on  this  is  founded  his  knowledge  of  God. 

(6.)  Though  this  likeness  has  been  impaired,  it  is 
not  entirely  destroyed.  Man  still  has  mind,  morals, 
immortality. 

(7.)  Still  the  character  of  God  is  at  an  infinite  dis 
tance,  and  must  be  brought  nearer  to  the  analogy  of 
humanity  to  be  contemplated  with  satisfaction  or 
profit. 

(8.)  This  is  accomplished  by  the  Incarnation, 
whereby  God  becomes  man. 

(9.)  Morality  is  the  same  in  God  as  in  man,  as  to 
kind,  but  infinitely  different  in  degree. 

(10.)  But  the  holiness  of  God,  in  itself  considered, 
is  so  far  removed  from  our  sphere,  that  we  need  to 
have  it  brought  nearer  to  us,  and  as  it  were  projected 


480  THOUGHTS    ON   PREACHING. 

on  the  plane  of  humanity.  Holy  attributes  are  not 
appreciated  till  we  behold  them  in  the  guise  of  man 
hood.  Then  we  sympathize  with  them,  understand 
them,  and  feel  as  if  we  could  imitate  them. 

(11.)  The  divine  excellencies  are  there  embodied 
before  our  eyes  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

(12.)  These  are  really  divine  excellencies,  though 
appearing  in  the  human  nature.  For  holy  affections 
and  volitions,  in  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  are  perfectly 
coincident  with  the  holy  affections  and  volitions  of 
the  united  Godhead ;  and  so  they  reveal  God  to  us. 
It  is  God  in  Christ,  whom  we  see,  admire,  love,  and 
imitate. 

(13.)  The  historical  representation  of  Christ  in  the 
New  Testament  is  thus  to  us  a  manifestation  of  God. 

(14.)  This  manifestation  in  the  gospel  is  the  great 
study  of  man's  life.  It  reveals  God.  It  shows  us  our 
law,  our  model,  and  our  portion. 

(15.)  There  is  no  other  manifestation  of  God  that 
shows  so  much  of  his  moral  glory. 

(16.)  Our  contemplation  of  this  is  the  great  means 
of  sanctification.  "  Beholding  as  in  a  glass,  &c." 

(IT.)  The  Holy  Spirit  makes  use  of  this  contem 
plation  to  make  us  like  God. 

(18.)  When  the  Spirit  takes  the  things  of  Christ, 
and  shows  them  unto  us,  he  doubtless  takes  these  very 
things  which  are  recorded  in  the  gospels. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          481 

(19.)  We  are  therefore  in  the  way  of  duty  and  of 
improvement,  when  we  place  ourselves  before  these 
things  in  the  way  of  meditation  and  study. 

§  66.  Deatli-~bed  Repentance. — Perhaps  we  do  great 
wrong  to  God's  infinite  grace,  by  talking  as  we  some 
times  do  about  Death-bed  Repentance.  To  terrify 
sinners  from  their  sins  is  a  good  object,  but  it  should 
be  sought  by  no  means  but  truth.  Shall  we  please 
God  by  exaggerating  in  his  behalf  ?  Shall  we  not 
in  the  end  even  frustrate  our  own  end  in  the  awaken 
ing  of  sinners  ?  True,  the  ungodly  will  abuse  the 
doctrine  that  God  sometimes  gives  repentance  on  a 
dying  bed  ;  but  which  of  the  doctrines  of  religion  is  it 
which  they  do  not  abuse  ?  The  case  of  the  dying 
thief  is  the  great  Scriptural  instance.  But  there  are 
numerous  instances  of  the  same,  so  far  as  we  can 
judge,  on  dying  beds  now.  In  my  own  ministry  I  have 
seen  many.  "  Train  up  a  child,"  is  often  here  fulfilled. 
There  is  a  wonderful  tendency  on  dying  beds  to  take  on 
afresh  the  experience  of  childhood.  What  an  encour 
agement  to  pious  mothers  !  Infantine  emotions  I  am 
sure  often  return  in  the  last  days  of  life,  and  a  mother's 
voice  rings  in  the  ears  of  the  prodigal  son.  This  gives 
me  greater  hope  in  talking  with  those  who,  however 
wicked,  have  been  trained  for  God  in  their  infancy. 

§  67.  Chrysostom  and  Augustine. — Many  a  person 


482  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

on  being  asked  which  were  the  sounder  and  soberer 
interpreters,  the  Greeks  or  the  Latins,  would  answer 
the  Latins.  Yet  the  reverse  is  true  in  many  cases. 
Augustine  is  full  of  childish  allegories  ;  Chrysostom  is 
almost  always  close  to  the  letter. 

§  68.  Christianity  operates  on  mankind  in  two  ways, 
viz.,  in  the  church,  and  out  of  the  church.  In  the 
church  it  is  constantly  operating,  and  legitimately ; 
but  each  church-organization  seems  after  a  time  to 
lose  its  charm.  Churches  grow  effete,  but  the  church 
lasts,  and  we  see  the  vigour  breaking  out  in  vital  ac 
tion  in  some  new  place.  But  we  must  not  be  sur 
prised  to  find  doctrine,  feeling,  and  life  going  behind 
hand  in  once  favoured  churches. 

Out  of  the  church  Christianity  also  operates  ;  and 
this  too  much  escapes  notice.  Beyond  question,  the 
principles  of  Bible  humanity  and  philanthropy  are 
gaining  ground  in  the  world.  Infidelity  indeed  claims 
this  as  its  own  triumph  ;  but  these  principles  were  all 
borrowed  from  the  Bible.  As  the  world  advances, 
we  may  hope  to  see  this  becoming  more  and  more 
true. 

§  69.  Dr.  Green. — Two  things  Dr.  Janeway  said 
about  Dr.  Green,  which  are  too  good  to  be  lost. 
1.  "  Dr.  Green,  from  the  time  of  his  early  ministry  to 
the  close  of  his  life,  used  to  spend  the  first  Monday  of 


MISCELLANEOUS    PARAGRAPHS.  483 

every  month  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.  2.  In 
one  of  my  visits  to  him  in  Philadelphia,  he  said, 
'  Brother,  I  pray  for  yon  every  day,  and  for  both 
branches  of  onr  church,  and  for  that  church  of  which 
you  and  I  were  so  long  collegiate  pastors.' ' 

§  YO.  Likes  and  Dislikes. — How  far  a  man  should 
be  governed  by  his  penchants  and  antipathies,  his 
likes  and  dislikes,  in  the  conduct  of  his  life,  is  a  very 
difficult  question.  The  juste  milieu  is  hard  to  be 
found.  Suppose  we  go  to  the  rigorous  extreme,  and 
say  that  one  ought  to  work  out  his  course  on  princi 
ples  of  severe  duty,  and  follow  this  implicitly,  with 
out  paying  the  slightest  regard  to  the  promptings  of 
nature,  or  to  any  constitutional  tendencies,  shutting 
his  ears  to  every  whisper  of  disgust,  and  steeling  him 
self  against  every  repugnance.  Men  have  been  found 
who,  under  strong  moral  or  religious  convictions, 
have  so  lived ;  indeed  this  is  the  very  soul  of  the 
ascetic  life.  "When  the  constitution  is  firm,  and  the 
will  imperative,  no  doubt  great  actions  have  pro 
ceeded  from  this  source.  There  is  something  great  in 
getting  the  victory  of  natural  cravings,  and  keeping 
under  the  flesh  by  a  perpetual  struggle.  Men  who 
have  so  lived  have  often  aimed  high,  and  accom 
plished  wonderful  results. 

It  may  be  questioned,  however,  whether  in  any 


484:  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

case  these  have  been  the  most  genial  and  creative 
minds.  Nature  does  not  move  in  right  lines,  nor 
grow  well  in  moulds  and  frames,  however  wisely  ad 
justed.  A  certain  violence  is  done  to  the  heavings  of 
inward  forces  tending  towards  developement.  These 
inward  forces  are  often  the  very  indications  of  Provi 
dence,  by  which  man  learns  whither  he  ought  to  go. 
It  is  universally  allowed,  even  by  the  sternest  moral 
ists,  that  in  the  choice  of  a  profession,  of  connections 
in  life,  of  one's  place  of  abode,  and  the  like,  the  in 
ward  propension  is  to  be  taken  as  an  element  in  the 
calculation.  Even  in  so  grave  and  sacred  a  matter 
as  a  call  to  the  Christian  ministry,  all  men  give  a  cer 
tain  weight  to  the  powerful,  and  sometimes  almost 
irresistible,  tendency  towards  it  in  the  mind  of  the 
proponent.  Great  geniuses,  in  every  department  of 
science,  literature,  soldiership,  the  fine  arts,  and 
philanthropy,  have  broken  away  from  the  heartless 
toil  to  which  seeming  duty  first  tied  them  down. 
How  remarkably  has  this  been  the  case  with  painters. 
All  the  strait-lacing  of  Pennsylvania  quakerism  could 
not  keep  Benjamin  West  from  the  easel.  The  same 
has  been  true  of  poets  and  theologians.  And  on 
looking  back  upon  the  lives  of  such,  we  cannot  but 
recognize  in  these  interior  struggles  a  providential 
guidance  towards  particular  ends.  How  can  we  deny 
then,  that  in  some  of  the  most  important  concerns  in 


MISCELLANEOUS    PARAGRAPHS.  485 

life,  it  is  allowable  to  have  some  regard  to  the  strong 
promptings  of  inward  desire  ? 

Excellency  in  every  human  calling  has  some  de 
pendence  on  the  zest  and  enthusiasm  with  which  it  is 
pursued.  Few  things  which  are  done  in  cold  Wood 
are  well  done.  Providence  does  not  mean  all  men  to 
follow  the  same  things  ;  and,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
that  which  a  man  follows  is  pointed  out  to  him  by 
some  dominant  taste  which  is  not  in  other  men,  and 
for  which  frequently  no  adequate  cause  can  be  as 
signed.  Hence  some  are  lawyers,  some  generals,  and 
some  laborious  students  in  recondite  and  new  branches 
of  learning.  Obedience  to  such  monitions  has  pro 
duced  the  greatest  works  known  among  men.  And 
it  is  remarkable  that  the  order  of  Jesuits,  which, 
above  all  other  communities,  has  adopted  for  its  prin 
ciple  of  education,  the  suppression  of  individual  will, 
and  subjection  of  all  private  like  and  dislike  to  the 
dictate  of  superiors,  has  produced  no  great  and  world- 
renowned  work  on  any  subject. 

It  seems  clear  that  we  may  go  to  an  extreme  in 
governing  our  whole  path  of  life,  in  contempt  of  all 
natural  propensities  and  preferences. 

But  the  question  still  returns,  how  far  we  may  be 
governed  by  such  in  the  daily  steps  of  our  ordinary 
vocation.  Even  here  it  would  be  an  overstrained  vir 
tue,  which  would  altogether  forswear  a  consultation 


486  THOUGHTS    ON    PJREACHING. 

with,  feelings  of  like  and  dislike,  which  may  some 
times  be  the  indications  of  Providence.  Where  there 
is  nothing  else  to  decide  the  question  between  con 
tending  claims,  we  may  very  naturally  and  wisely 
bring  in  the  consideration  of  the  agreeable  and  dis 
agreeable.  A  man's  daily  work  may  be  to  such  a 
degree  repugnant  to  his  feelings,  that  it  will  be  next 
to  impossible  for  him  to  persevere  in  its  prosecution. 

§  71. — The  days  we  call  idle,  sometimes  produce 
as  much  eventual  strength  as  is  derived  by  vegetable 
growth  from  the  fields  lying  fallow,  or  from  the  win 
ter  repose  of  the  tree.  "VVe  walk  the  floor,  we  open 
book  after  book,  we  read  a  little,  write  a  little,  muse 
a  little,  and  in  the  evening  condemn  ourselves  for 
want  of  diligence,  perhaps  j  ustly,  so  far  as  the  motive 
is  concerned.  Yet  in  nothing  am  I  surer,  than  that 
this  very  process  results  in  subsequent  energy.  Es 
pecially  when.  I  consider  that  those  who  have  these 
lapses,  on  certain  occasions,  are,  at  others,  employed 
for  hours,  or  even  days  together,  at  the  very  stretch  of 
all  their  powers.  In  a  studious  life,  if  the  scholar  did 
not  sometimes  leave  his  formal  prescribed  tract,  and 
expatiate,  as  it  were  at  random,  to  pick  up  the  scat 
tered,  variegated,  unclassed  flowers  of  common,  and 
even  little  truths,  he  would  fail  to  have  his  mind 
filled  with  a  thousand  things  which,  however  hetero- 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         487 

geneous  at  first,  go  through  the  digesting  and  assimi 
lative  process ;  become  the  material  of  future  argu 
ment,  or  furnish  embellishment,  illustration,  or  exam 
ple.  Casting  ourselves  on  Providence,  in  studies  as 
in  all  things  else,  we  find  ourselves  led  by  ways  that 
we  knew  not. 

§  Y2.  Consecration  of  Learning. — To  consecrate 
all  that  one  has  to  Christ,  is  the  ruling  purpose  of 
every  Christian.  In  the  esteem  of  the  Master  it  is 
this  purpose,  or  this  abiding  tendency  of  soul,  which 
is  the  thing  regarded.  Is  it  a  draught  from  the  well, 
an  alabaster  box  of  ointment,  or  a  gift  of  funeral 
spices  ?  it  is  received.  Is  it  a  visit  to  the  prisoner  or 
the  invalid,  or  clothes  to  the  naked  ?  it  is  accepted 
as  done  to  Christ.  The  rich  disciple  bestows  his  gold, 
and  the  scholar  may  bestow  his  learning.  These  are 
as  frankincense  and  myrrh.  The  great  point  is,  that 
he  who  has  aught  must  make  a  free-will  offering  at 
the  beloved  shrine.  The  accumulations  of  learning 
and  the  refinements  of  taste  may  be  withheld,  even 
after  voluntary  designation,  and  thus  the  sin  of  Ana 
nias  and  Sapphira  may  be  repeated,  in  a  matter  more 
precious  than  goods  and  lands.  But  when  all  the 
fruits  of  study  are  made  over  with  a  full  and  ready 
mind,  science  and  literature  may  be  truly  said  to  be 
laid  in  the  temple.  These  are  the  votive  treasures, 


488  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

which  will  be  more  numerous,  as  better  days  dawn 
on  a  more  enlightened  and  holier  church.  Then  it  is 
that  erudition  ceases  to  be  idolatrous  and  selfish, 
when  their  choicest  fragrance  exhales  towards  heaven. 

The  carved  work  of  the  Sanctuary,  the  chasing  of 
Bezaleel,  and  the  graving  of  Aholiab,  the  music  of 
Heman,  and  the  song  of  David,  were  as  welcome  of 
ferings  as  the  beasts  which  smoked  in  the  courts  of 
the  Lord's  house.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  reaping  in 
the  fields  of  classical  entertainment,  and  then  suffer 
ing  the  sheaves  to  perish  on  the  earth,  instead  of  gar 
nering  them  up  for  God.  When  we  feel  the  inspiring 
influence  of  books,  when  we  are  lifted  on  the  wings  of 
ancient  genius,  we  should  jealously  avoid  the  perver 
sion  of  the  gift.  The  children  of  this  world  have 
their  research  and  accomplishment,  and  enough  is 
done  for  pleasure  and  fame ;  but  the  Christian  scholar 
will  rebuke  himself,  unless  he  finds  it  in  his  heart  to 
be  more  alive  in  devotion  to  heavenly  things,  at  the 
very  moment  when  he  has  breathed  the  aroma  of 
poetry  and  eloquence. 

Such  a  disposition  of  mind  will  keep  him  from 
being  puffed  up  by  his  attainments,  from  resting  in 
the  transient  satisfaction,  from  forgetting  God  amidst 
his  favours,  and  from  sacrificing  to  gain  or  ambition 
what  he  has  gathered  from  the  labours  of  study.  The 
transition  in  a  Christian  disciple  from  worldly  litera- 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          489 

ture  to  the  Scriptures,  is  not  violent.  He  feels  the 
immeasurable  disparity,  and  rises  to  a  new  level  when 
he  follows  the  guidance  of  prophets,  of  apostles,  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  himself.  Attainments  of  learning 
made  in  such  a  temple  are  sacred,  however  remote 
the  subject  may  seem  to  be  from  biblical  research. 
These  gains  are  for  eternity.  They  are  not  only  not 
lost  in  this  world,  amidst  the  wreck  of  fortune  and 
health,  but  as  belonging  to  the  spiritual  part  in  which 
God's  image  chiefly  resides,  they  abide  and  survive  the 
dissolution  of  death,  and  emerge  in  the  better  state, 
only  to  be  the  germs  of  new  developement  in  that 
unexplored  world  of  everlasting  progress. 

Powers  strengthened  by  all  the  most  effective  dis 
cipline  of  earthly  schools,  are  dedicated  to  the  greatest 
and  holiest  work.  High  as  the  intellect  may  soar,  it 
will  never  cease  to  have  above  it  the  august  cope  of 
heaven ;  human  philosophy  will  never  exhaust  or  even 
reach  the  greatness  of  divine  ideas.  These  mysterious 
objects,  like  the  starry  heavens,  are  liberally  oifered 
to  every  eye,  and  the  poor  man,  the  slave,  and  the 
very  infant  gain  and  enjoy  something  from  the  celes 
tial  wonders,  which  Pascals  and  Newtons  lose  them 
selves  in  vainly  attempting  to  comprehend.  Yet 
the  tribute  rendered,  by  differing  capacities,  though 
equally  sincere,  is  not  equally  great.  When  God  be 
stows  genius  and  cultivates  talent,  and  enlarges  by 
21* 


490  THOUGHTS    ON    PKE ACHING. 

providential  culture  the  opening  reason,  he  does  this 
in  order  to  draw  from  such  natures  a  service  far  vaster 
than  that  of  common  minds,  however  pious.  Educa 
tion  is,  therefore,  a  fearful  gift,  bringing  tremendous 
accountability ;  it  should  lead  to  humility,  thanks 
giving,  activity,  and  devotion.  When  these  are  want 
ing,  a  godless  prostitution  of  the  powers  is  the  result ; 
offensive  to  God  in  the  proportion  in  which  the  subject 
of  these  qualities  is  raised  above  the  vulgar  population 
of  the  globe.  Witness  the  extreme  cases  of  a  Yol- 
taire  and  a  Byron.  When  such  instances  are  nume 
rous,  giving  character  to  a  nation  or  a  generation,  we 
have  the  spectacle  of  Atheistic  France,  and  apostate 
Germany.  The  Christian  scholar  should  pray  with 
every  breath,  that  he  be  not  high-minded,  but  fear. 
In  proportion  as  he  rises  in  attainments,  he  should 
sink  in  veneration,  and  dissolve  in  love ;  striving  to 
increase  his  simple  devotions  as  he  increases  his  men 
tal  discoveries.  Is  there  not  reason  to  think,  that 
many  learned  persons  feel  somehow  absolved  from  the 
private  daily  duties  of  religion  which  they  would 
themselves  enjoin  on  humbler  minds  ?  that  they  pray 
less,  read  God's  word  less,  and  sing  God's  praise  less, 
while  they  are  filling  up  every  hour  with  eager  pur 
suit  of  knowledge  ?  To  live  thus  is  to  belie  our  own 
professions.  We  declare  our  belief  that  truth  concern 
ing  God  in  Christ,  is  the  summit  of  all  truth,  and  that 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          4:91 

cold  science  is  insufficient ;  that  these  glorious  objects 
are  to  be  tasted  by  faith,  and  kept  constantly  before 
the  mind  by  devotion.  Thus  believing,  we  should  not 
grudge  the  time  bestowed  on  closet  exercises.  If  these 
are  animated  by  the  Spirit  of  grace,  they  are  the  most 
sublime  engagements  of  the  mind,  this  side  of  heaven. 
And  as  religion  in  general  is  the  highest  science,  so 
those  truths  of  religion  which  are  cardinal,  are  the 
noblest  eminences  of  the  mighty  range.  The  plan  of 
Grace,  the  Incarnation,  the  Person  of  Christ,  the 
Atonement,  the  Paraclete,  the  Second  Coming,  are 
the  local  points  on  which  the  spiritual  mind  will  be 
fixed,  exercising  itself  according  to  the  degree  of  its 
previous  culture. 

§  13. — As  a  man  gets  older,  his  pursuits  should 
change,  and  it  is  important  to  consider  how.  Till  a 
certain  point  of  feebleness,  action  should  have  more, 
and  study  less.  After  that  point,  example,  counsel, 
and  prayer,  would  seem  to  be  the  duties  of  a  Christian 
old  age.  But  plans  of  suitable  change  should  precede 
these  decays.  When  one  feels  himself  to  have  no 
longer  any  ascending  ground  in  the  journey,  he  should 
pause,  and  readjust  his  methods.  What  is  good  for 
40,  is  not  good  for  50.  In  regard,  for  instance,  to 
study  ;  all  studies  of  preparation,  are  merely  auxiliary 
studies,  and  most  studies  of  education  should  be  put 


492  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

away.  New  languages,  unless  they  can  be  made  to 
fall  under  the  head  of  necessary  amusement,  should 
be  dropt.  New  sciences  and  arts  fall  under  the  same 
rule. 

To  consolidate  and  methodize,  and  complete  what 
has  been  most  successfully  begun  in  former  years — to 
turn  theory  into  practice — to  attack  with  vigour  the 
great  task  of  life — to  cast  out  old  evils,  and  by  grace 
to  exhibit  a  holy  character,  these  are  the  duties  of  him 
who  is  growing  old.  The  whole  prospect  is  deeply 
serious,  though  it  need  not  be  alarming. 

§  Y4. — Powerful  exertion  of  the  will,  under  influ 
ences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  tends  to  drive  away  the 
tempter,  and  confirm  habits  of  holiness. 

§  75.  Moral  Education. — Reading  a  passage  in 
the  Apology  of  Socrates,  I  was  more  forcibly  struck 
than  ever  before  with  the  grand  defect  of  our  educa 
tion.  AVhat  should  be  the  aim  of  all  our  education 
of  youth  ?  It  should  be  to  make  them  good  men  and 
good  citizens.  This  should  be  apparent  in  every  hour 
of  every  day.  It  is  not  so  apparent.  The  languages 
and  sciences  are  taught,  but  what  morals  and  duty  ? 

Leaving  out  the  question  of  the  Bible  in  schools, 
closely  connected  with  this  subject,  how  remarkable 
that  we  have  no  text-books  and  no  classes,  having 
reference  to  morals.  There  are  no  examinations  to 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          493 

discover  whether  pupils  are  prepared  for  the  duties  of 
life.  When  we  ask  a  boy  concerning  his  progress,  it 
is  "  How  far  have  you  got  in  Algebra  ?  "  or  "  Have 
you  read  Homer  ?  "  and  not  "  "What  are  the  tempta 
tions  of  youth  ?  "  "  What  are  the  evils  of  gambling 
or  strong  drink  ?  "  "  What  are  the  dangers  arising  from 
corruption  in  voters  ?  — The  moral  and  practical  part 
of  education  kept  out  of  view. 

Education  includes  teaching  and  training. 

§  76. — Morality  may  exist  in  practice  without  re 
ligion.  Here  we  do  not  mean  universal  holiness,  or 
the  highest  virtue,  which  is  itself  religion.  Morality 
is  equivalent  to  the  maintenance  of  certain  relations 
between  man  and  his  fellows,  or  between  man  and  so 
ciety,  or  between  man  and  his  own  interests  consid 
ered  objectively.  These  relations  may  subsist  without 
any  inward  right  feeling. 

§  77. — The  mental  acts  of  devotion  to  God  are 
thought  of  unworthily  by  most.  In  no  acts  can  the 
human  soul  be  more  nobly  employed.  Nothing  we 
can  do  is  so  safe.  In  this  employment  of  our  souls  we 
might  well  be  willing  to  be  arrested  by  death.  INTo  man 
car*  gaze  long  on  the  face  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  with 
out  being  elevated.  No  one  will  love  to  do  so,  unless 
he  has  been  born  from  on  high.  God  grant  me  more 
of  the  spirit  of  true  devotion. 


494:  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHING. 

§  '78. — There  is  a  wisdom  which,  is  not  in  books. 
It  may  be  gathered  from  books,  considered  as  parts 
of  innumerable  real  sources.  Into  books  it  may  be 
transcribed,  but  only  they  will  comprehend  it,  who 
have  been  taught  it  from  some  other  quarter. 

§  79. — He  who  comes  down  from  the  mount  loving 
God,  or  from  the  cross  loving  Christ,  needs  no  new 
frame  or  impulse  for  loving  his  brother  also.  And 
how  beautifully,  in  all  the  texture  of  St.  John's  epis 
tles  is  Love  interwoven  with  Light !  "What  a  radiant 
holiness  ;  what  a  holy  illumination !  The  two  seem 
almost  one,  in  the  apostle's  mind,  as  they  are  in  the 
infinite,  primeval  source  ;  for  God  is  light,  and  God  is 
love.  And  so,  in  regard  to  the  creature,  "  he  that 
saith  he  is  in  the  light,  and  hateth  his  brother,  is  in 
darkness  even  until  now."  The  acting  of  this  princi 
ple  in  the  new  creature  will  be  constantly  purging  out 
its  opposites ;  and  this  by  painful  struggles.  Contrary 
principles  of  native  selfishness  will  manifest  them 
selves,  but  will  be  shamed  and  excluded.  Every  suc 
cessful  struggle  of  this  kind  will  make  the  next  easier, 
and  will  put  it  further  off.  Selfishness  and  love  will 
come  to  be  readily  known  ;  and  here  will  be  a  porta 
ble  rule,  to  be  applied  in  the  absence  of  all  lesser 
regulations.  The  study  of  Christ's  character  will  first 
educe  love  to  him,  and  put  it  into  exercise,  and  then 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          495 

create  a  disposition  to  walk  in  love  as  he  hath  loved 
us.     Thus  faith  will  work  by  love. 

Oh,  for  greater  measures  of  this  Christian  grace  ! 
Oh,  for  quickness  to  detect,  and  strength  to  cast  out, 
the  first  poisons  of  anger,  malice,  envy,  jealousy,  and 
covetousness. 

§  80. — It  is  unreasonable  to  hope  for  a  situation 
where  men  will  not  be  found  to  oppose,  envy,  and 
blame.  To  expect  this  would  be  childish.  Humble 
perseverance  in  plain  duty,  is  the  way  to  maintain  an 
easy  mind.  Apply  the  Lord's  rule  about  anxiety  for 
the  morrow.  "Work  by  the  day,  you  may  not  live  till 
to-morrow.  Why  cripple  to-day's  exertions  by  fore 
casting  a  trouble  which  may  never  come.  Such  vexa 
tions  are  trials  sent  of  God.  They  have  been  common 
to  all  saints.  Learn  to  bear  the  reproaches  of  even 
good  men,  for  many  sincere  Christians  are  far  from 
perfection  in  wisdom,  and  there  are  degrees  in  knowl 
edge  and  experience,  and  diversities  of  opinion,  and 
there  are  strange  and  extravagant  tempers.  Some 
virtue  is  put  to  the  test  by  every  one  of  these  trou 
bles.  Humility,  patience,  meekness,  courage,  forti 
tude,  love  of  truth,  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  are  ex 
ercised  thus.  If  a  man's  ways  please  the  Lord,  he  will 
cause  even  his  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with  him. 

§  81.  Work  at  the  Interior. — Keep  right  principles. 


496  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

Guard  the  heart.  Do  what  is  right.  Approve  your 
self  to  God.  Eye  the  Judgment.  Live  as  before  God, 
and  with  Christ.  Take  good  counsel,  but  confer  not  with 
flesh  and  blood.  Let  your  whole  life  be  a  preparation 
for  dying.  Give  your  answers  clearly,  frankly,  sim 
ply,  and  meekly ;  and  learn  when,  and  where,  and  how 
to  answer  the  fool  according  to  his  folly,  and  when  to 
answer  not.  Be  harmless  as  the  dove.  Study  Christ's 
methods  under  the  contradiction  of  sinners  which  he 
endured.  Feel  your  own  incompetency  for  any  part 
of  labour,  and  own  your  obligation  to  grace  for  every 
measure  of  success.  Throw  self  overboard,  and  walk 
with  singleness  of  mind,  and  you  will  certainly  have 
success.  Modern  preachers  ought  to  be  ashamed  to 
complain  of  opposition  when  they  read  of  what  befell 
the  apostles  and  early  teachers.  God's  words  in  vision 
to  Paul  at  Corinth  should  be  our  encouragement,  "  Be 
not  afraid,  but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace,  for  I  am 
with  thee,  and  no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee  ; 
for  I  have  much  people  in  this  city."  At  Ephesus  this 
apostle  ministered  amidst  opposition,  "Serving  the 
Lord  with  all  humility  of  mind,  and  with  many  tears 
and  temptations."  Acts  20,  19.  He  journeyed  on, 
knowing  that  "  bonds  and  afflictions  "  abode  him. 

§  82. — The  communications  of   a  pastor  with  a 
parishioner  are  not  to  be  made  an  affair  of  ceremony. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         497 

Pastoral  visits  are  not  to  be  regulated  by  the  laws 
whereby  fine  ladies  govern  their  morning  calls.  A 
spiritual  message  is  what  Christ's  minister  carries  to 
a  house,  and  lias  in  it  something  too  solemn  to  be 
treated  like  a  visiting-card. 

§  83. — Great  care  is  needful  to  avoid  harshness 
and  spiritual  pride  in  dealing  with  weak  professors. 
We  must  copy  the  wise  physician,  who  often  has  to 
condescend  to  the  nervous  and  whimsical.  The  gen 
tleness  of  Paul  and  Paul's  divine  Lord  should  be  al 
ways  before  us. 

§  84.  A  Batch  of  Maxims.— 

(1.)  Make  not  too  much  of  maxims  ;  they  are,  after 
all,  but  measuring-rules. 

(2.)  Give  ten  thoughts  to  the  question,  What  will 
God  think  of  it,  before  one  to,  What  will  men  think 
of  it. 

(3.)  If  you  could  act  like  an  angel,  some  would 
blame ;  do  your  best,  and  in  the  long  run  you  wall 
please  more  than  by  doing  any  thing  for  the  bare  pur 
pose  of  pleasing. 

(4.)  Never  give  over  striving  against  a  bad  habit. 
Begin  again  and  again  a  thousand  times.  Victory 
will  come. 

(5.)  Keturn  daily  and  hourly  to  the  study  of 
Scripture. 


498  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

(6.)  For  comic  and  childish  jocularity,  substitute 
mild,  loving,  and  if  you  possess  it,  witty  demeanour 
and  discourse. 

(7.)  Truth  is  food ;  falsehood  is  poison  ;  error  is  in 
jurious.  Apply  this  to  the  reading  of  erroneous 
books,  even  when  necessary. 

(8.)  Some  minds  are  more  susceptible  of  harm 
from  contact  with  falsehood  than  others. 

(9.)  Infinite  wisdom  in  the  Scriptures  is  always  ac 
cessible. 

(10.)  The  more  you  are  dwelling  in  truth  unalloyed, 
the  more  healthful  will  your  thoughts  be. 

(11.)  Some  minds,  from  susceptibility  to  the  un 
settled  influence  of  error,  are  not  fitted  to  be  polem 
ics. 

(12.)  Do  not  discredit  those  convictions  which 
have  grown  out  of  former  investigations,  even  though 
the  explicit  arguments  for  them  are  forgotten.  The 
mind  should  make  progress  in  conviction  as  well  as  in 
knowledge. 

§  85.  Christian  Love. — In  this  dreary,  windy, 
winter  night,  when  some  of  my  household  are  ill,  and 
some  in  bed,  I  feel  in  my  loneliness  the  need  of  com 
munion  with  other  spirits  than  my  own.  And  how 
grateful  to  the  soul  at  such  an  hour  to  know,  that  this 
inw^ard  craving  is  met  by  all  the  teaching  of  the  gos 
pel,  and  that  no  man  liveth  unto  himself ! 


MISCELLANEOUS  PAKAGKAPHS.          499 

The  communion  of  saints  and  the  communion  of 
humanity  are  best  connected  with  communion  with 
Christ.  Here  is  their  origin  and  this  is  their  bond. 
The  man  who  has  no  love  of  the  brethren  has  no  love 
•of  his  kind  :  the  widest  philanthropy  is  found  in  union 
with  Christian  graces.  The  Spirit,  who  unites  men 
with  God,  through  Christ,  unites  them  to  one  another. 
This  holy  love,  which  we  speak  of  even  to  triteness, 
and  against  which  we  are  daily  sinning,  is  more  wor 
thy  of  pursuit  than  all  the  objects  of  philosophy.  I 
am  from  different  lines  of  inquiry  brought  perpetually 
to  the  point,  that  the  chief  way  of  helping  mankind 
is  to  work  deeply  within.  True  charity  begins  at 
home.  But  from  its  very  beginning  it  cultivates  a 
reference  to  those  who  are  without.  Christ,  wTho 
teaches  as  none  other  ever  taught,  and  wraps  up 
whole  volumes  in  a  word,  has  taught  us  the  grand 
secret  of  forgetting  self.  We  are  to  lay  all  at  his  feet. 
We  are  to  seek  his  kingdom.  We  are  to  cease  from 
loving  our  owrn  life,  nay,  we  are  to  lose  it.  Loving  our 
neighbour  as  ourselves,  we  are  to  lay  down  life  for  the 
brethren,  and  to  do  all  possible  good  to  those  whom 
we  can  reach,  as  if  doing  it  to  him.  Never  forgetting 
the  inimitable  and  mediatory  parts  of  his  life  and 
death,  we  see  in  them  also  an  example  of  self-forget- 
fulness  and  sublime  benevolence. 

The  constant  effort  of  the  soul  in  this  direction, 


500  THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

under  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  the  chief  activity  in  religion. 
It  connects  itself  with  all  doctrines  and  with  all  graces. 
Humility,  penitence,  submission,  patience,  faith,  hope, 
meekness,  gentleness,  self-denial,  sympathy,  diligence, 
truth,  desire  of  truth,  purity,  generosity,  courage,  jus 
tice,  veracity,  candour,  and  cheerfulness,  all  ally 
themselves,  as  so  many  sisters  with  love. 

§  86.*  I  am  reading  John  Owen  on  the  Sabbath.  The 
difficulties  of  this  subject  increase  on  me  very  much. 
To  understand  what  they  are,  read  a  page  of  Owen 
(Exercitations  preliminary  to  his  Exposition  of  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews).  Part  5,  Exerc.  1,  §  5,  p.  268,  of 
Goold's  Edinburgh  edition.  He  gives  sixteen  queries, 
which  afford  matter  for  deep  rumination.  My  chief 
puzzles  have  always  been  about  the  questions,  How 
much  of  Sabbath  observance  comes  from  Creation — 
how  much  from  Moses — how  much  is  abolished — how 
much  remains.  K^ow  and  then  the  great  old  fellow 
says  a  mighty  sly  thing,  e.  g.,  "  Most  men  act  as  if 
they  were  themselves  liable  to  no  mistakes,  but  that  it 
is  an  inexpiable  crime  in  others  to  be  mistaken." 
"  Some  men  write  as  if  they  were  inspired,  or  dreamed 
that  they  had  obtained  to  themselves  a  Pythagorean 
reverence."  "  Only  I  fear  some  men  write  books 

*  This,  and  the  remaining  paragraphs,  ure  extracted  from  letters 
to  his  son,  while  a  student  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          501 

about  them,  because  they  read  none."  A  sentence 
of  his  about  preaching  is  worth  being  copied  as  a 
maxim  :  "  Nor  must  we  in  any  case  quit  the  strengths 
of  truth,  because  the  minds  of  some  cannot  easily 
possess  themselves  of  them."  Dr.  Mason  used  to  say 
that  all  his  theology  was  from  Owen  on  the  He 
brews,  and  my  father  often  remarked,  that  with  all 
Owen's  power,  erudition,  and  originality,  he  never  de 
viated  in  his  theology  into  any  thing  eccentric  or  haz 
ardous. 

§  87.  Don't  make  your  sermon  fine.  Remember 
"  great  Julius's  "  word,  and  avoid  verbum  insolitum 
veluti  scopulum.  Don't  mistake  the  language  of 
imagination  for  the  language  of  passion ;  the  sin  of 
our  young  ministry.  I  wish  I  had  you  for  half  an 
hour  a  day,  to  give  you  some  voice  training  ;  I  have 
paid  much  attention  to  this,  with  one  certain  result, 
that  I  have  learned  to  speak  long  and  loud  without 
fatigue.  Nothing  can  be  done  on  paper,  however. 
All  is  only  an  expansion  of  old  Sheridan's  speak  as 
you  talk. 

Read  aloud  and  study  in  your  club,  Monod's 
article,  Bib.  Rep.  for  1843,  pp.  191-211.  He  "is 
himself  the  great  sublime  he  draws."  Nothing  in  all 
my  history  ever  did  me  so  much  good.  See  the  re 
markable  notes  on  pp.  205-6,  and  208.  This  last 


502  -          THOUGHTS    ON    PREACHING. 

opened  my  eyes  to  the  matter.  Bead  it  and  re-read 
it.  I  have  the  noble  original,  and  have  heard  the 
matchless  exemplification. 

§  88.  I  hope  yon  will  let  no  kind  of  reading  keep 
you  from  looking  daily — if  only  for  five  minutes — 
into  a  class  of  writers,  who  are  not  attractive  in 
regard  to  letters,  but  who  unite  great  talents, 
great  Bible  knowledge,  and  great  unction.  At  the 
head  of  these  stands  Owen.  My  father  used  to  say 
one  should  read  "  Owen's  Spiritual  Mindedness  "  once 
a  year.  I  add  his  "  Forgiveness  of  Sin  ;  "  his  "  In 
dwelling  Sin,"  and  his  "  Mortification  of  Sin." 
Here  we  have  philosophical  analysis  applied  to  phe 
nomena  of  experience.  Yet  more  Platonic  and  seraph 
ic  are  Howe's  "  Delight  in  God,"  and  "  Blessedness 
of  the  Righteous."  Flavel's  "  Keeping  the  Heart," 
is  less  deep,  but  more  clear,  purling,  and  delicious. 
As  to  Baxter,  I  think  his  English  equal  to  any  ever 
written.  One  such  book  kept  near  at  hand,  and 
opened  for  a  few  moments  every  morning,  seasons 
the  thoughts.  So  of  good  biographies — so  one  does  not 
seek  to  copy  details  and  idiosyncrasies ;  Simeon's 
£ife — Martyn's — Brainerd's  (with  due  allowance  of 
his  diseased  gloom) — Edwards' — above  all  HALIEUK- 
TON'S.  I  have  no  doubt  of  your  becoming  sufficiently 
learned  ;  but  I  have  great  fears  lest  you  should  look 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          503 

for  happiness  too  much  in  the  sesthetic,  than  the  di 
vine,  part  of  the  To  KAAON ;  lest  literature  and  art 
should  occupy  the  place  of  spiritual  communion.  It 
requires  great  striving,  to  keep  an  academical  life 
from  promoting  habits  of  mind  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  great  activities  of  good  men  in  the  arena  and 
battle  of  the  church. 

§  89.  In  thinking  upon  any  subject,  with  a  view 
either  to  writing  or  speaking,  the  mind  is  apt  to  flit 
away,  or  to  fall  into  sterile  revery.  Against  this,  the 
common  remedy  is  the  pen  /  and  it  is  valuable.  But 
it  is  not  indispensable,  or  even  the  best.  Let  me  sug 
gest  a  device  which  I  never  met  with  in  books,  but 
which  I  have  practised  in  bed  and  on  horseback. 
Stake  down  every  attainment  in  your  thinking  ly  a 
verbal  proposition.  The  thing  of  emphasis  is  the 
prepositional  form.  "We  are  not  now  considering 
whether  it  is  true,  or  important,  or  in  due  sequence  ; 
put  your  thought  into  words,  as  affirming  or  denying. 
After  a  little  turning  of  it,  put  the  result  into  words. 
Seek  to  deduce  another  from  the  one  you  have. 
1ST.  B.  These  will  often  prove  heads  of  discourse.  If 
you  have  a  dozen  of  these  on  any  subject  your  work 
is  blocked  out.  The  aid  to  memory  is  surprising. 
Wretched  as  that  no-faculty  is  in  me,  I  always  re 
member  such  propositions  from  one  day  or  week  to 


5(M  THOUGHTS    ON    PftEACHING. 

the  next.  In  early  efforts  it  may  be  well  to  utter 
them  audibly.  It  shows  you  that  you  are  going  on — 
and  how  fast — and  when  you  have  come  to  a  logical 
dead-lock.  This  has  often  been  my  only  preparation 
for  speaking.  I  consider  this  so  important,  and  am 
so  much  afraid  of  being  misunderstood,  that  I  will 
give  you  an  example,  being  the  last  subject  which 
thus  engrossed  my  attention,  in  Broadway  and  in 
bed  ;  preferring  it  for  the  very  reason,  that  it  has  not 
yet  thrown  itself  into  any  crystallization  :  2  Tim.  3  4, 
"  lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God"  1.  Man 
loves  pleasure.  2.  The  propensity  to  such  pleasure 
exists  by  nature  in  all  men.  3.  The  merely  animal 
nature  is  governed  by  this  as  a  law.  4.  Pleasure 
must  not  be  taken  to  include  absence  of  pain.  5.  He 
who  gives  full  swing  to  this  propensity,  so  as  to  do 
just  what  he  pleases  or  wishes,  does  not  thereby  reach 
perfection.  6.  He  does  not  thereby  attain  moral 
excellence.  T.  Nay,  he  dose  not  attain  happiness, 
the  very  thing  he  seeks.  8.  Such  indulgence  is 
ruinous.  9.  Consequently,  this  cannot  be  the  highest 
law  of  man.  10.  Many  go  great  lengths  this  way, 
though  nature  itself  cuts  them  short.  11.  As  abso 
lute  self-indulgence  is  ruinous,  the  love  of  pleasure 
must  he  checked.  12.  The  normal  life  is  therefore  one 
of  checks  and  counterpoises.  13.  Strength,  happi 
ness,  and  every  great  quality  are  produced  by  such 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          505 

struggles  and  antagonisms.  14.  Hence  men  seek 
pleasure  in  toil)  labour,  pain,  navigation,  hunting, 
fighting.  15.  Happiness  is  more  in  effort  than  in 
dulgence.  1G.  Seeing  then  that  propensity  must  be 
checked,  it  must  be  considered  what  principles  can 
be  brought  in,  to  countervail  a  tendency  so  powerful. 
IT.  Selfish  interest  is  not  strong  enough.  18.  Reas 
oning  is  not  strong  enough  19.  Mere  conscience  is 
not  strong  enough.  20.  Love  is  not  strong  enough. 
21.  Honour  is  not  strong  enough.  22.  The  text 
declares  what  is  strong  enough :  the  love  of  God : 
&c.,  &c.  This  will  suggest  something  as  to  the 
genesis  of  thought.  Each  proposition  brings  forth 
the  next.  Sometimes  the  series  is  not  so  much 
thus,  A  as  thus,  A 

B  BCD 

x 
C 

x 
D 

Sometimes  the  next  proposition  will  be  only  a 
neater  enumeration  of  the  preceding ;  and  this  process 
is  eminently  useful  to  the  mind.  Sometimes  "No.  2 
will  be  an  example  of  No  1.  Sometimes  you  will  sec 
that  the  order  is  capable  of  improvement ;  so  above, 

I  perceive  that  the  order  (on  rhetorical  grounds), 
22 


506  THOUGHTS   ON    PREACHING. 

should  be  20,  21,  19,  22.  If  a  man  will  only  pursue 
this  process  far  enough,  he  will  acquire  plenty  of 
material,  in  such  quality  as  agrees  with  his  other 
knowledge  and  native  powers. 

The  principal  thing  gained  by  this  method  is,  I 
own,  t\\Q  fixing  of  attention.  But  this  is  after  all  the 
principal  thing  in  all  processes  of  productive  thought. 
What  is  it  that  a  man  does  in  thinking  out  any  sub 
ject,  beyond  keeping  his  mind's  eye  looking  in  a  cer 
tain  direction  ?  What  shall  arise  in  that  quarter  is  as 
unknown  to  him  as  to  any  one  else.  This  is  one  of 
the  greatest  mysteries  in  the  origin  of  thoughts.  The 
turning  of  certain  leading  thoughts,  as  they  arise,  into 
propositions,  marks  the  rate  of  progress,  indicates  di 
rection,  and  blazes  one's  way  through  the  forest. 
Each  stake  tethers  the  thought,  which  would  wander. 
There  is  an  additional  advantage  in  this,  that  we 
never  have  the  fall  use  of  language,  as  an  instrument 
of  thought,  unless  when  we  cause  our  thoughts  to  fall 
into  assertory  shape.  These  have  been  views,  regu 
lating  my  practice  for  a  great  many  years ;  but  I 
have  only  of  late  come  to  think  that  they  are  over 
looked  by  many.  This  is  to  be  considered  rather  as 
marking  progress  than  contributing  to  the  generation 
of  thought ;  though  it  indirectly  does  the  latter. — It  is 
to  be  observed,  that  many  of  the  thoughts  which  rise, 
and  even  take  this  prepositional  form,  are  to  be  im- 


MISCELLANEOUS  PAEAGEAPHS.          507 

mediately  resisted,  as  false,  irrelative,  or  superfluous. 
Making  the  proposition  is  only  putting  them  into  a 
shape  in  which  they  can  be  tested. 

As  the  getting  of  something  to  say,  (the  ancient 
Inventio?)  is  the  prora  et  puppis  of  all  preparation,  I 
have  dwelt  a  little  on  this  point.  Such  endeavours 
are  not  to  be  made  invita  Minerva.  All  times  are 
not  equally  good  for  production.  This  belongs  to  the 
passivity  of  the  mind  in  these  processes.  We  must 
wait  upon  it ;  sometimes  leave  it,  to  rest  or  expatiate, 
return  to  the  task  again,  and  especially  catch  at 
moments  of  inspiration.  Generally  speaking,  faith- 
fid  thinking  gives  pleasure.  But  the  beginnings  are 
generally  tentative.  Change  the  scene.  A  subject 
will  look  differently,  in  the  study,  in  the  forest,  by 
the  seaside,  and  in  the  crowded  thoroughfare.  Ex 
ternal  circumstances  often  stimulate,  while  they  seem 
to  interrupt  the  productive  faculty ;  just  as  shaking 
a  solution  will  sometimes  fix  a  crystallization.  Rest) 
especially  in  sleep,  greatly  helps.  Clearing  up  of  the 
general  health  is  useful.  For  these  reasons  trains 
given  up  as  impracticable  will  be  successfully  re 
sumed  after  months. 

Thus  I  have  spun  out  a  long  yarn  upon  this  simple 
expedient  of  fixing  one's  thoughts  in  propositions, 
during  the  process  of  excogitation.  No  one  method 
has  been  so  much  employed  by  me  in  sermonizing, 


508  THOUGHTS  ON  PREACHING. 

and  mostly  when  walking  up  and  down  the  floor,  or 
some  path  among  the  trees. 

§  00.  I  have  sometimes  thought  of  writing  you  a 
letter  on  maxims,  but  time  has  failed  me.  It  is  a 
subject  which  has  occupied  much  of  my  thoughts,  and, 
I  suppose,  has  somewhat  modified  my  character,  such 
as  it  is.  By  a  maxim,  I  mean  a  general  principle  of 
conduct,  expressed  in  a  concise,  portable,  applicable 
manner.  When  it  hits  public  taste  and  runs  through 
society,  it  becomes  a  proverb.  The  best  thing  Lord 
John  Russell  ever  said,  was  his  definition  of  a  pro 
verb  :  "  the  wisdom  of  many — the  wit  of  one." 
(Study  a  little  on  this.)  I  have  a  great  penchant  for 
proverbs,  in  spite  of  Lord  Chesterfield's  denunciation. 
I  have  several  collections,  and  I  wish  I  had  more. 
But  to  return  to  maxims,  which  are  not  all  proverbs, 
they  are  generalizations  from  the  wisdom  of  ex 
perience.  Here  minds  differ  very  much.  Some  men 
seem  to  lay  up  no  general  conclusions,  however  long 
they  may  observe.  Your  grandfather  used  to  say, 
that  old  Samuel  Tenable  was  the  wisest  man  he  ever 
knew  ;  that  like  Franklin  he  was  continually  treasur 
ing  up  the  lessons  of  experience,  and  framing  resultant 
rules,  wThich  often  would  be  highly  valuable  to  others. 
You  may  remember  some  good  things  in  French,  on 
this  point.  But  at  present  my  aim  is  not  so  much  to 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.         509 

lead  you  to  enjoy  other  people's  maxims,  as  to  frame 
your  own.     K"o  man  can  begin  too  soon  to  philoso 
phize   upon   mind,   manners,   morals,    and    religion. 
Make  maxims.     Make  a  inaxim  every  day.     Do  not 
force  it — but  if  you  watch  for  it,  it  will  come.    When 
you  are  not  looking  for  quail,  the  shrill  "  Bob  "White  " 
reaches  your  ear  without  impression  ;  but  when  quail 
are  your  special  quarry,  you  catch  the  most  distant 
whistle.     He  that  is  on  the  look  out  for  may,J  or  apo- 
find  them.     A  young  man's  maxims  must  and  Terence, 
and  often  hasty,  but  that  particular  tiliow   Sancho 
which  frames  them  is  all  important.     T  there%re  they 
humble  instance.     At  a  certain  per,;     The  Spaniards 
was  much  afflicted  with  a  sort  of  bom    the  Arabians, 
was  on  the  sofa,  I  did  not  like  to  ta  very  racy  ;  e.  g., 
was  in  my  fauteuil,  it  irked  me  to  gc  elbow.     2.  Take 
was  in  the  attic,  but  the  trouble  of  mcond.     3.  Leave 
overbalanced  the  desire  to  play.     This  it.     4.  Setting 
much,  and  so  killed  all  alacrity,  that  I  lu  Apropos  of 
rule  to  myself,  Never  avoid  doing  any  £/^leasure  in 
of  the  short  bodily  trouble  it  may  occasion.^  of  the 
saved  me  a  world  of  useless  regrets.     From  fay's 
things,  we   shall  by  degrees  proceed  to  great.     Ho 
that  has  his  mind  most  stored  with  such  tried  conclu 
sions,  will  be  best  armed  for  the  battle  of  life.    There 
is  no  reason  why  he  should  blurt  them  out  to  others : 
they  are  his  own  pocket  rules.     It  is  not  a  matter  of 


510  THOUGHTS    ON    PKEACHINO. 

indifference  how  these  are  expressed.  A  terse,  felici 
tous  maxim  is  like  an  instrument  brought  to  its 
perfect  state.  The  thought  may  pass  through  a 
thousand  minds,  (the  wisdom  of  many,)  before  it 
comes  to  a  shape  of  memorable  and  crystalline  ex 
pression  (the  wit  of  one).  It  may  be  compared  to  one 
of  your  happy  formulas,  in  mathematical  analysis. 
Many  a  man  had  discovered  it,  before  one  happy 
conduct,  said  Amicus  certus  in  re  in  certd  cernitur. 
manner.  Conclusion  (even  without  the  happy  form) 
society,  it  be  life ;  and  is  like  a  sum  laid  up  in  store 
John  Russell  vs.  But  chiefly  do  I  refer  to  rules  for 
verb  :  "  the  w^t,  derived  from  one's  own  experience. 
(Study  a  little  on  erience,"  means  the  sum  of  such 
proverbs,  in  spitct  man's  experience  is  most  service- 
I  have  several  <DSt  reduced  to  palpable  formulas  ;  as 
But  to  return  tcr's  observations  are  most  valuable 
they  are  gene^  methodized  Do  not  think  I  wish  to 
perience.  Hjoiner  of  proverbs.  He  might  be  proud, 
seem  to  laymafce  a  single  good  one.  But  the  proverb, 
they  rnoTepic  anf}  the  fable,  is  an  extinct  genus.  The 
tiiafc;ction  of  Solomon's  is  wonderful ;  you  may  im 
agine  how  much  is  lost  by  a  version  which  is  literal, 
modern,  and  occidental.  I  find  lists  of  proverbs  very 
good  reading.  But  to  return — it  is  not  to  provoke 
you  to  make  proverbs,  but  to  lead  you  to  maximize  / 
first,  to  deduce  some  law,  fact,  or  general  rule ; 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          511 

secondly,  to  give  it  a  memorable  shape.  "We  are  con 
stantly  doing  so,  on  a  small  scale.  Thus,  after  some 
painful  experiments,  a  young  man  arrives  at  a  maxim 
like  this — "  always  to  break  off  any  dispute  when  I 
find  myself  growing  warm."  "What  we  call  wisdom, 
as  distinct  from  knowledge,  consists  very  much  in 
the  habit  of  observing  and  amassing  such  conclusions. 
A  very  great  fondness  for  the  sententious  has 
made  me  a  lover  of  what  are  called  adages,  or  apo 
thegms.  There  are  many  such  in  Horace  and  Terence. 
They  abound  in  Seneca.  You  know  h,<>w  Sancho 
Panza's  mouth  was  filled  with  them  ;  thereSqre  they 
must  have  hit  the  fancy  of  Cervantes.  The  Spaniards 
derived  their  taste  for  them  from  the  Arabians. 
Some  of  the  Spanish  proverbs  arc  very  racy ;  e.  g., 
1.  Touch  a  sore  eye  only  with  your  elbow.  2.  Take 
your  wife's  first  advice,  not  her  second.  3.  Leave 
your  jest  while  most  pleased  with  it.  4.  Setting 
down  in  writing  is  a  lasting  memory.  Apropos  of 
which  last  proverb,  I  have  found  much  pleasure  in 
writing  down  at  night  what  I  call  the  thought  of  the 
day  ;  that  is,  some  reflection  derived  from  the  day's 
observation,  especially  if  it  can  be  couched  in  a  single 
sentence. 

§  91.*  Prefer  a  subject  with  which  you  have  some 

*  From  a  letter  to  his  son  in  college. 


512  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

acquaintance.  The  more  special  the  subject,  the 
more  you  will  find  to  say  on  it.  Boys  think  just  the 
reverse ;  they  write  of  Yirtue  Honour,  Liberty,  &c. 
It  would  be  easier  to  write  on  the  pleasures  of  Yirtue, 
the  Honour  of  knighthood,  or  the  difference  between 
true  and  false  Liberty  ;  which  are  more  special. 
Take  it  as  a  general  rule,  the  more  you  narrow  the 
subject,  the  more  thoughts  you  will  have.  And  for 
this  there  is  a  philosophical  reason,  which  I  wish 
you  to  observe.  In  acquiring  knowledge,  the  mind 
proceeds  f^oin  particulars  to  generals.  Thus  Newton 
proceeded  from  the  falling  of  an  apple  to  the  general 
principle  of  gravity.  A  great  many  particular  obser 
vations  were  to  be  made  on  animals,  before  a  natural 
ist  could  lay  down  the  general  law,  that  all  creatures 
with  cleft  hoofs  and  horns,  are  gramnivorous,  or 
that  all  birds  with  two  toes  before  and  two  behind, 
built  in  holes.  This  process  is  called  generalization. 
It  is  one  of  the  last  to  be  developed.  Hence  it  re 
quires  vast  knowledge  and  mature  mind  to  treat  a 
general  subject,  such  as  Yirtue,  or  Honour,  and  it  is 
much  better  to  begin  with  particular  instances.  It 
may  be  added,  that  this  mental  process,  of  deducing 
general  laws  or  principles  from  numerous  instances, 
is  also  called  Induction.  It  is  by  a  consideration  of 
minute  facts,  called  an  "  induction  of  particulars," 
that  we  infer  (in-ducimus)  a  general  principle.  And 


MISCELLANEOUS  PARAGRAPHS.          513 

this,  simple  as  it  seems,  is  the  foundation  of  the  whole 
Baconian  or  Inductive  philosophy.  If  you  will  care 
fully  attend  to  what  I  have  written,  you  will  have 
clearer  views  than  are  common  among  young  men,  on 
a  fundamental  point  in  Metaphysics. 

§  92.  I  recommend  you  to  keep  an  Ephemeris, 
journal,  or  every-day  book,  not  for  putting  down  re 
ligious  frames,  but  facts,  notes  of  conversations,  dates, 
and  hints  towards  more  extended  composition.  Some 
most  valuable  Boswellisms  are  laid  up  in  these  vol 
umes.  I  regret  that  I  did  not  begin  till  1834,  but 
since  then  my  series  is  full  and  unbroken.  Thoughts 
jotted  down  there  have  a  peculiar  freshness.  Pascal's 
"  Thoughts  "  had  this  origin.  In  Tangier's  edition 
they  are  printed  just  as  Pascal  left  them,  with  all 
their  errors,  blanks,  &c.  In  one  place  he  even  says 
that,  on  taking  the  pen,  he  forgets  the  thought  which 
he  intends  to  record.  In  my  humbler  endeavours, 
these  "  thoughts  of  the  day,"  vary  from  one  sentence 
in  length,  to  fifty  pages  ;  and  on  enumeration  I  find 
them  more  than  a  thousand.  It  is  wonderful  how 
things  will  grow,  if  you  do  the  least  bit  every  day.  It 
is  so  in  learning  languages.  Many  of  these  para 
graphs  of  mine  are  scholia  upon  Scripture  passages. 
Some  of  them  are  prayers,  the  writing  of  which,  as 
also  the  re-perusal  long  afterwards,  I  have  found  of 
great  value.  When  we  spend  some  time  together,  I 


514  THOUGHTS   ON   PREACHING. 

will  read  to  you  some  of  my  occasional  notes  on 
preaching,  from  these  books. 

§  93.  My  father  used  to  say  to  me :  Think  long 
and  deeply  on  your  subject,  and  as  if  nobody  had 
ever  investigated  it  before.  I  did  not  then  know 
what  he  meant.  One  of  the  chief  uses  of  writing  ser 
mons  is,  that  it  keeps  one  a-thinking.  The  pen  seems 
to  recall  the  thoughts.  Some  cannot  think  without 
it ;  which  is  bad — very  bad.  This  is  all  a  matter  of 
habit.  The  greatest  other  use  of  writing  is,  that  the 
matter  is  preserved.  For  I  will  not  include  correct 
ness,  and  polish  of  style,  &c.,  which  can  be  fully  ob 
tained  by  the  other  method.* 

*  These  paragraphs  should  have  been  included  in  the  Homiletical 
Paragraphs,  but  were  procured  too  late  for  insertion  there. 


OT  THB 

[ITFI7EE! 


THE    END. 


r  or  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY, 
BERKELEY 


SEP    9;. 


REC'U  :. 
OCT  31 1958 


&•« 


fitcH. 


jEP  !  4  1959 


20m-l,'22 


ID 


